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Born in 1972 in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, Samer Abu Hawwash is a Palestinian who moved to Beirut in 1993 to study journalism and communication at the Lebanese University. After graduating in 1997 he remained in the capital and entered the domain of cultural journalism. He has since contributed to many Arabic cultural supplements.

Abu Hawwash is a poet and novelist and translator. He has published the following poetical works: Al Hayat Touba’a Fi New York (Life is Printed in New York), 1997, Tahiyyat Al Rajol Al Muhtaram (The Greeting of Respectable Man), 1999, Tathakkar Valentina (Remember Valentina), 2001, The Journal of Illustrated Niceties, 2003, Radio Jazz Berlin, 2004, Nozol Moda'a Bi Yafitat Bid (An Inn Lit With White Signs), 2004, and Shajaratan Ala Al Satih (Two Trees on The Roof), 2006. A further collection of poetry, She Sews a Dress to Remember, will appear in 2010.

In 2005 Abu Hawwash published his first novel, Valentine's Day, followed by Al Saada or Silsilat Infijarat Hazat Al Asima (Happiness or A Series of Explosions Rocked The Capital) in 2007.

He translates both poetry and prose. In 2009 Abu Hawwash published a large anthology (A Thousand and One Contemporary American Poems) comprising fifteen volumes of poems by Ai, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Ted Kooser, Charles Buckowski, Robert Bly, Louise Gluck and others. He has also translated Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the Collected Short Fiction of William Faulkner, Marilynne Robinson's novels (Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home), Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup, and Kakuzo Okakura's The Book of Tea.

Since 2004 he has lived and worked in United Arab Emirates.