Zakaria Tamer
was born in 1931 in the Al-Basha district of Damascus. He is the leading short story writer in the Arab world, with most of his stories dealing with man's inhumanity to man, and to woman, publishing his first stories in 1957, and to date eleven short story collections, two collections of satirical articles and numerous children’s books.
His works have been translated into many languages, with now two collections in English, Tigers on the Tenth Day (trans. Denys Johnson-Davies, Quartet 1985) and Breaking Knees, published June 2008, and excerpted in Banipal 31. He was awarded the Owais Prize for the Novel in 2001. He is the leading short story writer in the Arab world. He has published many volumes of short stories and a number of books for children. The Sleeping Women, a short story published in Banipal No 1, appears in his anthology, Sanadhaku [We Shall Laugh], published in 1999 by Riadh el-Rayyes Books, Beirut.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal No 31 Spring 2008
Banipal No 1 February 1998
Banipal No 34 published April 2009
Latest News
06/02/2012At a celebration of literary translation on Monday 6 February at Kings Place, Khaled Mattawa will receive the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
[read more]03/02/2012
The Mosaic Rooms celebrates theartistic and poetic works of the great Syrian poet Adonis with talks and events from 3-8 February and an exhibition of Adonis's collages from 3 February until 30 March. The opening evening this Friday sees Adonis in conversation with Khaled Mattawa who is the winner of the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for his translation Adonis: Selected Poems.
[read more]16/01/2012
Khaled Mattawa wins the 2011 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Translation Prize for Adonis:Selected Poems
[read more]12/01/2012
Chair of IPAF Judges Georges Tarabichi announces the shortlist authors of the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
[read more]09/01/2012
Banipal Book Club's first book for discussion is The Tobacco Keeper by Ali Bader.
[read more]08/01/2012
Ibrahim Aslan, one of Egypt's best-loved authors, has died of heart failure at the age of 77.
[read more][read all news stories]