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Haidar Haidar
was born in 1936 in the small village of Husain-al Bahr near Tartus in Syria. He is one of the most distinguished Arab writers today. Through his work he has decried the abuses of tyranny and the lack of freedom, democracy and social justice in the Arab world and broken deep-rooted taboos by exploring forbidden themes.
In the 1960s he began publishing short stories in Syrian and prestigious Lebanese journals. On of his short stories, Al-Fahd [The Lynx], was made into a feature film in 1969 and won several awards. In the early 1970s he worked as a teacher in Algeria before moving to Lebanon where he worked as a journalist, editor and book reviewer for several publishing houses.
In 1980 he moved to Cyprus and finally settled back in his birthplace a few years later, where he remains unaffected by foreign influences. He has published several acclaimed novels and collections of stories. A short story, Pollen, was published in Banipal 32, in the Feature on Contemporary Syrian Literature, part 2.
Contributor's Issues
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal's first audiobook* * *
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Banipal Book Club
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