Sabrin Hasbun, winner of the inaugural Footnote X Counterpoints Writing Prize, will be speaking at the Norwich Book Festival about her book Crossing: A Love Story Between Italy and Palestine,
The event that is also part of the Platforma Festival (October 2025) produced by Counterpoints Arts.
A beautiful and compelling family memoir, Crossing retraces the love story between Sabrin Hasbun’s Palestinian father and Italian mother, and the life of her half-Italian, half-Palestinian family from the 1960s to 2020. After the loss of her mother, Sabrin tries to renegotiate her mixed identity and understand her mother’s choices which led her from an oppressive childhood in a village in Tuscany to finding love and community activism in Palestine.
The book was highly praised by the judges of the Footnote X Counterpoints Writing Prize
‘Vivid, compassionate, captivating, Sabrin’s writing is both deeply rooted in place and culture, and transcending borders in its universality and humanity.’
– Elif Shafak
This is a story about overcoming grief and what it means to lose not only loved ones, but also a place in the world and a sense of belonging.
‘Sabrin’s writing is captivating, drawing us warmly into a world that is both different and familiar, that we want to know about. A special and original voice, one for our times.’
– Philippe Sands
‘A moving and tender story about love and identity, and a meditation on the people who make us who we are.’
– Dina Nayeri
About the author
Sabrin Hasbun was born in Palestine, spent her childhood in Palestine and Italy, and now lives in the UK. She holds a PHD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and lectures in Creative Writing at Cardiff Met University.
The £15,000 Footnote X Counteproints Writing Prize includes an advance of £5,000 and a publication agreement with Footnote Press. The prize, which recognises narrative non-fiction centred around themes of displacement, identity or resistance, was developed in association with the Southbank Centre, and is supported by the John Ellerman Foundation, Doughty Street Chambers, Spread the Word and The Bookseller.
About Norwich Book Festival
Norwich Book Festival (NBF) is a new festival that took place in Norwich, City of Stories, for the first time in October 2024. NBF will return 24-31 October 2025, with eight days of brilliant events.
This city-wide festival brings together readers, writers, bookshops, literary organisations, and other key Norwich institutions to celebrate stories of all kinds.
Norwich Book Festival is designed to be for every kind of reader, and brings nationally renowned authors to England’s first UNESCO City of Literature for fantastic events, readings, signings, interactive experiences and much more. The Festival highlights Norwich’s literary heritage, and contributes to the city’s thriving culture of reading and writing.
In 2024, Norwich Book Festival welcomed 22,000 visitors across four days, to six venues in Norwich city centre. For 2025 we will be building upon the successes of 2024, and expanding the Festival to take place over eight days.
Norwich Book Festival is presented by The Forum, alongside key partners National Centre for Writing, Norfolk County Council – Library and Information Service and University of East Anglia. The Forum is a landmark cultural organisation in the centre of Norwich, which presents Norwich Science Festival, Norwich Games Festival, and coordinates Norfolk Heritage Open Days. The Forum is also home to one of the country’s busiest libraries – Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library.
Norwich Book Festival is supported by First Bus East, and The Hays Travel Foundation.
