Syria and Silence: Authors

Samar Yazbek

Samar Yazbek is a Syrian writer and journalist. She was born in Jableh, Syria, near Latakia, in 1970, and studied Arabic literature at Latakia university.

Yazbek has been a prominent voice in support of human rights and more specifically women's rights in Syria. In 2012, she launched Women Now for Development, an NGO based in France that aims at empowering Syrian women economically and socially and at educating children.

In 2010, Yazbek was selected as one of the 39 most promising authors under the age of 40, by Beirut39, a contest organized by the Hay Festival. In 2012, she was chosen for the prestigious PEN/Pinter Prize "International writer of courage", in recognition of her book “In the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution”. She was also awarded the Swedish Tucholsky Prize, and the Dutch Oxfam/PEN Prize, in the same year. In 2016 Yazbek’s literary narrative “The Crossing”, which was translated into 16 languages, was awarded the prestigious French “Best Foreign Book” prize. Her novel, “The blue pen”, was in the third and final selection of the French Femina award. Her most recent book, “19 women”, is a non-fiction narrative that collects testimonies of Syrian women who have bravely resisted both the Asad regime and the Islamists.

Yazbek has published two collections of short stories, six novels, three non-fiction literary narratives. Samar Yazbek lives in France. Read a recent interview with her here.

Dima Wannous

Dima Wannous is a Syrian author born in 1982. A student of French literature and translation at the University of Damascus and the French Sorbonne, she wrote in multiple Arab (Al Safir, Al Hayat) and foreign (Washington Post) newspapers. She managed the cultural section of the electronic magazine “Modon” between 2012-2014, and currently prepares and presents a cultural television show. Her third novel “The frightened ones”, was shortlisted to the International Prize for Arabic fiction (also known as Arabic Man Booker in 2018), and to the French Institut du Monde Arabe - Lagardère award in 2019. It was translated into 11 languages, and was published in the UK in April 2020, by Harvill Secker. Read about her recent work here.

Khaled Khalifa:

Khaled Khalifa was born in 1964, in a village close to Aleppo, Syria. He is the fifth child of a family of thirteen siblings. He obtained a Bachelor degree of law and currently lives in Damascus where he also writes scripts for cinema and television. Khalifa published 6 novels, three of which were vastly translated and earned international recognition. "Death is hard work”, translated into 12 languages, and published by Faber & Faber in the UK, was on the shortlist of the National Book Award (USA) in 2020. It was awarded the Saif Ghobash - Banipal award for translation that same year. His previous novel, "There are no knives in the kitchens of the city” was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz medal of literature in 2014, and was shortlisted to the International Prize of Arabic Fiction (or Arabic Man Booker), as well as his second novel “In praise of hatred”, which was also on the long list of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2013.

Hamid Sulaiman

Born in Damascus in 1986, Hamid Sulaiman trained as an architect, but he decided to devote himself to painting and drawing. He was arrested in 2011 for having participated in demonstrations of the Arab Spring in Syria. Released, but called to perform his military service, he went to Jordan by taxi, then to Egypt with his mother, a lawyer close to the Syrian National Council. In June 2012, they obtained a visa for Germany, where his mother settled. He continued his way and settled in France, because “France was the country of comics.” In March 2016, he published his first graphic novel: Freedom Hospital, the story of a clandestine hospital in Syria. An exhibition is presented at the Paris Book Fair on this work. With the ingredients of a shonen, a graphic style similar to Edmond Baudoin or Frank Miller, the reader follows Hamid Sulaiman in his quest. We see him testing, documenting and carrying out his first orders, in particular for members of the Syrian community. Hamid Sulaiman had the honor of being published by the prestigious German publisher Hanser Verlag (for Freedom Hospital which was published in five languages including English by Jonathan Cape). Flagship authors like Joe Sacco and Roberto Saviano have written about his work. He has won numerous awards including the Pulp Festival Prize, Pen Voices Festival Prize, etc. Hamid started to make fine art projects between Paris and Berlin, and he presented exhibitions with institutions like the British Museum, The Institute of the Arab World, the museum of resistance in Esch in Luxembourg. Today Sulaiman lives and works in Angoulême. 

Khaled Alesmael

Khaled Alesmael, Syrian author, journalist and short film maker based in London now. In his exile, he has gone on to write two queer books and poems, including Selamlik, regarded by many as one the first homoerotic perspective of the Syrian war. Selamlik, the title of which brings to mind hope for change and freedom, tells the story of Furat his childhood and journey from war-torn Syria to Sweden as a refugee. The book, which bears many parallels to Khaled’s own journey, has been widely acclaimed as a powerful account of an emergent Arab queer identity, his writing has been compared to Jean Genet's in the Swedish media,  published in Swedish and German and soon in different languages. Khaled received an award for his short, Coffee with Sukkar, at the Gothenburg Film Festival in 2019 and went on to win the Swedish Radio Award 2020 for his short story A Cotton Bag Carries Damascus. In the Meantime His debut Selamlik is the shortlist of Skoutz Award in Germany.Khaled was an accomplished radio journalist before he left Syria and worked in a major cities in the MENA and Europe. He claimed asylum in Sweden and he is a Swedish citizen now. Khaled is a founder and teacher of creative writing in Arabic course at Gothenburg University. You can keep up with Khaled’s artistic output at @KhaledAlesmael and https://khaledalesmael.com

Itab Azzam

Itab Azzam is a filmmaker, author and activist. In 2016 she produced the BAFTA winning documentary series Exodus Our Journey to Europe (BBC, PBS, Canal+) documenting the journeys of refugees fleeing war. She directed the award winning feature documentary We Are Not Princesses (Amazon), a film telling the story of a group of Syrian women who came together to create a theatre piece based on Sophocles' Antigone. In 2021 she founded Makani a charity working to create therapy and empowerment for women refugees through Art and education. She is also a cofounder of Sabbara, a social enterprise helping Syria women refugees with employment and co-author of the bestselling Syria: Recipes from Home, which combined refugees stories with traditional recipes. Itab is currently working on a long form feature documentary documenting the journey of Syrian girl growing up in Germany for release in 2023.

Mamdouh Azzam

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.

Erkan Özgen

Erkan Özgen was born in Derik in Mardin in 1971. He graduated from the Painting Department, Çukurova University in 2000. He works on video-based installations and has participated in group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. In 2003 he curated the “Eyes Contact” exhibition at Diyarbakır Arts Center. In 2005 Özgen participated in the International Artists Studio Program at Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö, Sweden. In the same year, he was awarded “Prix Meuly” at Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland. In 2008 he participated in the Can Xalant exchange programme at the Centre for Creating and Contemporary Thought in Mataró, Barcelona. In 2016 Özgen participated in the PM/HIAP Safe Haven Helsinki residence programme in Suomenlinna. He was awarded the “Polarized! Vision is War/Peace” prize for his film “Wonderland”. Between 2016 and 2017 he curated the collection “In-Between Worlds. Kurdish Contemporary Artists” for the Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection. In 2018 he had his first European solo exhibition at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation. The Monography Giving Voices has been edited by Hilde Teerlinck and published by Sternberg Press, Berlin. Since his work, Özgen has been presented in several museums, art institutions and biennales worldwide including Tate Modern, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Pinakothek der Moderne, Seoul Museum of Art, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Manifesta Palermo, amongst others. He has also participated in many workshops in Beirut, Damascus, Diyarbakır, Enschede, Khartoum and Taipei. Özgen has given lectures on contemporary art in Turkey and abroad and has also worked as an activist in support of various ecological initiatives. He is one of the founders of Loading Independent Art Space established in Diyarbakır in 2017. He was member of the advisory board of Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme 2018-2019.

Our invited authors are represented by RAYA Agency:

RAYA the agency for Arabic literature is a Paris based literary agency, the first, and so far only agency focusing on selling and managing Arabic literature translation and adaptation rights. Starting 2004, RAYA has represented quality literature from around the Arab region. Titles on RAYA’s list are selected with great care, and include works by emerging as well as established and mature authors. RAYA also represents publishers, Dar al saqi and Naufal, imprint of Hachette Antoine. Over the years, RAYA, in collaboration with its co-agents, has sold rights in over 20 languages, and has placed authors in houses such as Harvill Secker, Faber & Faber, in the UK, FSG, in the US, Actes Sud, Gallimard, Stock in France, Bompiani, Feltrinelli in Italy, Rowohlt, Hanser in Germany, to name only a few.