Sheikha Helawy

Sheikha Helawy (, born 1968) is a Palestinian writer and poet born into a Bedouin family in the village Dhail El E’rj, in the outskirts of Haifa. In 1989, she moved with her family to Jaffa. She is known as a prominent writer of Palestinian literature.

Education and literary career Helawy attended Nazareth Nuns High School in Haifa, and then pursued her bachelor's degree and master's degree in education and Arabic language. Later, she worked in the field of counselling and educational curricula.

Helawy published four storytelling collections, as well as a poetry collection: Her 2023 collection They Fell Like Stars from the Sky presents eighteen stories that focus on girls and women at different stages of their lives. Many of them are Palestinian Bedouins from “unrecognized” villages, such as the village Dhail El E’rj, where Helawy was born, and later obliterated by the Israeli government.

In addition, some of her works were translated into various languages including Hebrew, English, German, and Bulgarian, and published in specialised journals.

Critical reception Helawy's writings were considered to be characterised by self-narrative through the presence of the speaker's conscience, along with topics referring to their surroundings, emotions and intellectuality, along with being accurate with her descriptions.

Additionally, an article in Al-Arabi newspaper emphasised Helawy's plea that a Palestinian has the right to love, hate and imagine. Furthermore, critics described her writing and diction as containing irony, referring to one of her short story collections with a "monotonous, pale, and ordinary title", but at the same time presenting "strong emotions" of joy, dancing, and love.

Works

The Ladies of the Dark (2015) (Arabic original title: )سيدات العتمة The Window's are Bad Books (2016) (النوافذ كُتب رديئة) Outside of Classes is Where I Learned to Fly (2016) (خارج الفصول تعلمتُ الطيران) Order C345 (2018) (الطلبية C345) They Fell Like Stars from the Sky & Other Stories, translated by Nancy Roberts, Neem Tree Press 2023,