Elham Dwairy Tabry

Elham Dwairy Tabry was born in 1947 in Nazareth

Elham Dwairy Tabry was born in Nazareth in 1947, the third of five children in a conservative Arab family. Her father was a building engineer and her mother a housewife. She attended the girls-only Franciscan school in Nazareth and borrowed books from her uncle, the poet Jamal Kawar.

She earned a teaching certificate in 1972 and a senior teacher certificate in English in 1986. In 1989 she completed a BA in Education and Arabic Language at the University of Haifa. She studied bibliotherapy at Oranim in 1995 and earned a master's degree in education at Loughborough University in England.

She worked as a teacher from 1972 to 1997 and began writing on education in 1994, first for Kul al-Arab. Her first book, Albaida, appeared in 1994. By 2020 she had published 62 children's books, 9 books for teenagers and 2 professional books, through Dar Al-Elham Publishing, which she founded.

She created the Firas, Hana and Qushqush series and wrote and directed stage shows featuring Qushqush. She wrote scripts for Israeli Educational Television and from 2017 has appeared as an education expert on Makan radio. She has taught at Oranim Academic College and the Open University of Israel.

She is married to engineer Edwar Tabry and has 3 children. Her family helped with her books, and her son Kamal illustrated the Qushqush series.