ASHRAF ZAGHAL is a poet, novelist and environmentalist who was born and raised in Jerusalem. He has published four poetry collections, and his work has been translated into English, French, and Hebrew. His debut novel, Seven Heavens Away, is scheduled for release through House of Anansi Press in February 2026.
In 2001, he was awarded the Young Writer’s Award for Poetry by the A.M. Qattan Foundation, Palestine. His work appeared in two anthologies of modern Palestinian poetry: Poets from Palestine-The Permanent Guests of Fire (Beirut, 2001) and Being Palestinian (Milan, 2022). In French, his work appeared in the literary journal NU(e) (2002) and Interludes Poetiques de Palestine (2019). In Hebrew, selected poems were translated by Sasson Somekh and appeared in the literary journal Iton 77 (2001) and in an anthology of modern Arabic poetry in Hebrew and Arabic (Literature Between Two Languages, Kivon Mizrah 7, 2003).
Ashraf holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Water Resources from the University of Guelph in Canada and has practiced environmental management for the past 25 years.