Jo Roberts

Jo's first book, Contested Land, Contested Memory; Israel's Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe, met with critical acclaim across the political divide, from the Times of Israel to the Journal of Palestine Studies and the Electronic Intifada. It was a finalist for the 2013 US National Jewish Book Awards, and placed second for the 2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction.

Trained in her native England as a lawyer and anthropologist, Jo Roberts is a freelance writer. For five years she was managing editor of the New York Catholic Worker newspaper, to which she frequently contributed. Her reportage from Israel and from the West Bank has appeared in Embassy, Canada’s foreign policy weekly. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

“I couldn’t put it down… I was utterly absorbed. Jo is a beautiful writer, and this is a book with great heart, written by a journalist whose empathy for humanity is evident on every page. It is her patience and her curiosity that compel this book, and as a reader you simply can’t stop turning the pages.”

— Gilbert King: Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of The Devil in the Grove

"Perhaps the best book I can think of for thoughtful people to read about Israel and Palestine.”

— Professor Laura Levitt: author, American Jewish Loss after the Holocaust

For more information, see Jo's website at www.joroberts.org