Atef Abu Saif, born in 1973 in a refugee camp in Jabaliya on the Gaza Strip, is a researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, former Palestinian Minister of Culture (2019 - 2024) and writer. He taught political science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza and is editor-in-chief for the magazine Politics, published by the Institute of Public Policy in Ramallah. As an author, he has already published numerous novels, some of which have been translated into several languages. His novels „A Suspended Life“ (dt. “Life in limbo”) (2014) and "Hajji Christina" (2016) were both shortlisted in 2015 and 2016 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

He also has three collections of short stories (including: "The Book of Gaza” (2014), which also contains one of his own short stories), five plays and a series of non-fiction books on political science.

Abu Saif wrote two diaries detailing daily events during his time in Israel's war in Gaza („The drone eats with me” (dt. „Fbreakfast with the drone”), „Don’t look left: a genocide diary”).