Maya Abu Al Hayat also written Maya Al Hayat or Abu Al-Hayyat is a Palestinian poet, novelist, translator and actress, born in Beirut. She graduated as a Civil engineer in 2003. She has published four novels, four collections of poems and more than 40 children's stories some of which are : A Bedtime Story (2007) which made it into Etisalat long list award in 2007, Fallfool in Beit Al Ghoul (2016), The Cup (2018), and The Blue Pool of Questions (2016) (Awarded the Best illustrations in the 2016 Etisalat Award). Her English collection of poems You Can Be The Last Leaf was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Translation
She has worked as a script writer for several TV shows for children, including Iftah ya Simsim Abu Dhabi where she produced a series of stories including Masooda the Turtle (2015) (which is in Abu Dhabi curriculum for the second grade), Kiki and kookoo at the clinic (2015) and many others. Her stories for children also include, “Bashour”, “Questions in a Suitcase”, and “A words Cooker”.
Her story "Bedtime Story" was translated into Swedish and published in Sweden, also the “Blue pool of Questions” was translated into English and published in the United States.
Maya also translated a group of international novels and poetry to Arabic language, including “Kolca” and the “Old Woman, who Broke all Barriers” which were both published by Dar Al- Muna, and the “Red Bird” published by Tamer institute. She also presented for several years the children's TV program "Farhan and Friends" on Palestinian Satellite channel. She works as a director of the Palestine Writing workshop, which works to encourage reading through creative writing programs, and publish stories for children and young adults. She lives in Jerusalem.
