“Return to Ramallah,” an excerpt from Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
Shamieh's novel "Too Soon" invites the audience to reflect on their relationships with home and the multifaceted nature of belonging.
Betty Shamieh
Betty Shamieh (she/her) is a Palestinian American novelist, screenwriter and playwright. Her debut novel, Too Soon, was selected as a PEOPLE Magazine’s Book of the Week and an NPR Book of the Day. Too Soon was a February 2025 Indie Next Pick and featured as one of the Hottest Debut Novels of 2025 in Goodreads. Her six New York play productions include the off-Broadway premieres of Roar and Malvolio, a sequel to Twelfth Night, which were both New York Times Critics Picks. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, Shamieh was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and named a UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue. She is currently the Mellon Playwright-in-Residence at the Classical Theatre of Harlem and working on a tv pilot based on Roar with support from Pop Culture Collab.