Ghassan Zaqtan (b. 1954) Born near Bethlehem, Palestinian poet, novelist, and editor. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including The Silence That Remains: Selected Poems (2017) and Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me (2012) that won the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize, both translated by Fady Joudah; Ordering Descriptions: Selected Poems (1998); and Early Morning (1980). Zaqtan is also the author of the novels Old Carriage with Curtains (2011) and Describing the Past (1995). In June of 2013, his name appeared for the first time among the speculation list for the Nobel Prize Literature for the fall of 2013.