Ru Freeman

“I’m always looking for the thing that connects people; in fiction, that’s my goal. I’m very interested in making the fiction stand in a way that allows people to see that yes, it happened in Sri Lanka, but it’s not only about Sri Lanka: it’s about the way we go to war, it’s about how increments lead to huge social changes that are really destructive, it’s about how politics affects ordinary people.”

Kafka Prize for Fiction

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“Delicate and vital. . . . Freeman’s charisma shines on each page of these beautiful stories. This is a treasure.”

— Publisher's Weekly starred review for Sleeping Alone

“An accomplished debut collection. . . . deftly constructed and vividly realized. . . . Freeman is capable of producing darker hues, and of disturbing and delighting in equal measure.”

— Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sleeping Alone

“From this collection emerges a timely, poignant vision about what a truly secure and peaceful world might look like.”

— Erica Chenoweth, Professor Of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School on Indivisible: Global Leaders on Shared Security

“Extraordinary Rendition reminds us of the power of art and the necessity of literature. In stories, essays and poems that are as varied and diverse, contradictory and complicated as we are, the writers in this deeply humane anthology shed light and bear witness to the one of the complex conflicts of our time. Ru Freeman has made a book unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s a great contribution to not only to the conversation about Palestine, but to the larger one about peace and justice.”

— Cheryl Strayed

“I don’t know that I’ve seen children more opulently depicted in fiction since Dickens. . . . The novel soars [with] its sensory beauty, language and humor.”

— The New York Times Book Review on On Sal Mal Lane

“Evocative and moving. Ru Freeman is a marvelous storyteller who sees deeply into the complex layers of compassion and love, of sorrow and betrayal. An amazing first novel.”

— Ursula Hegi on A Disobedient Girl

Sri Lankan born writer and activist Ru Freeman is the author of novels, short stories, essays, and poetry. Her most recent book is the short story collection, Sleeping Alone (Graywolf Press, 20220), which Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, called, “a treasure.” Her novels are On Sal Mal Lane (Graywolf Press, 2013), a New York Times Editor’s Choice, and A Disobedient Girl (Atria, 2009), which Danielle Trussoni called, “startling, subversive and heartbreaking.” She is also the editor of the anthology, Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers on Palestine (OR Books, 2015) a collection of the voices of 65 American poets and writers speaking about America’s dis/engagement with Palestine, and co-editor of the anthology, Indivisible: Global Leaders on Shared Security (Olive Branch Press, 2018.) Other creative and political work has appeared internationally, including in the UK Guardian, The Boston Globe, and the New York Times. She is director of the Artist's Network at Narrative4, a contributing editorial board member of the Asian American Literary Review, and a fellow of the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Lannan Foundation. She is the 2014 winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction by an American Woman. She writes for the Huffington Post on books and politics.

When asked about which form she prefers to write in, Freeman responded: “I like the novel more than the short story. I guess that would be one preference that I have, although I write both. I’ve actually been writing more poetry lately than working on the edits of the new novel, so I guess the hierarchy at this moment would be: poetry, novel, short story. The political pieces have to be written very quickly, because something’s happened and you want to talk about it and it has to be talked about now. There’s a charge that comes from writing that kind of stuff.”

She holds a graduate degree in labor studies, researching female migrant labor in the countries of Kuwait, the U.A.E, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, in the South Asia office of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO), and the American Friends Service Committee in their humanitarian and disaster relief programs.

She currently lives and writes in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

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