Sayed Kashua was born in Tira, Israel, to Palestinian parents. He studied Sociology and Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a regular contributor to the Haaretz newspaper and the creator and screenwriter of the critically acclaimed television comedy Arab Labor. Since he published his first novel in 2002, all of his work has wanted to tell Israeli society a story, that of the Palestinians. But in July 2014, he decided with his wife and his three children to leave Israel and move to the United States without a return ticket. In 2015 he began working as a professor at the University of Chicago and Urbana-Champaign, both in Illinois.