Khaled Khalifa

Khaled Khalifa (1964-2023) was a Syrian novelist, screenwriter and poet, and widely regarded as a giant of Syrian letters. His six published novels were: Haris al-Khadi’a (The Guard of Deception, 1993); Dafatir al-Qurbat (The Gypsy Notebooks, 2000), which was suppressed by the Arab Writers Union for four years after its publication; Madih al-karahiya (In Praise of Hatred, 2006), which explored the impacts of the conflict in Hama, was banned by the Syrian government, and was a finalist in the 2008 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF); La Sakakin fi Matabikh Hathihi al-Madina (No Knives in the Kitchens of this City, 2013), which won the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and was shortlisted for the 2014 IPAF; Al-Mawt ‘Amal Shaq (Death Is Hard Work, 2016) which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature; and Lam Yusil ‘Alayhum Ahad (No One Prayed Over Their Graves, 2019), which was longlisted for the 2020 IPAF and the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature. As a screenwriter, Khalifa wrote several television dramas, including Kaws Kozah (Rainbow) and Serat Al-Jalali (Memoirs of Al-Jalali), as well as various documentaries and short films.