Mamdouh Azzam is a Syrian novelist. His most celebrated and controversial novel is The Palace of Rain, a powerful and daring treatment of taboos in the conservative Druze community. His first novel Ascension to Death has been translated to English, German and French. His writings tell the human stories of love, war, conflict, the struggle against foreign powers and opposition to authority even on the smallest scale. In 2020 his novel Souls of the Honey Rocks was shortlisted for Arab most prestigious The Sheikh Zayed book award.
The Syria Writes Literary Festival will run from Saturday 30 October to Friday 26 November. It will feature public talks from Syrian authors and activists and intimate lunch-time conversations with some of Syria’s most beloved authors. The Festival is co-hosted by Suzan Meryem Rosita, Curator of Syria and Silence, and Mohamed-Salah Omri, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature.