Rabih Alameddine ( ar, ربيع علم الدين; born 1959) is a

Lebanese-American Lebanese Americans ( ar, أمريكيون لبنانيون) are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon. Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the ...

painter and writer. His 2021 novel ''The Wrong End of the Telescope'' won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Early life

Alameddine was born in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

, Jordan to

Lebanese Druze Lebanese Druze ( ar, دروز لبنان, durūz lubnān) are Lebanese people who are Druze. The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, and an ethnoreligious esoteric group originating from the Near East who self identify as ...

parents (Alameddine himself is an atheist). He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Business in San Francisco. Alameddine is gay.

Career

Alameddine began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. His debut novel ''Koolaids'', which touched on both the

AIDS epidemic The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 2021, HIV/AI ...

in San Francisco and the Lebanese Civil War, was published in 1998 by Picador. The author of six novels and a collection of short stories, Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. He has lived in San Francisco and Beirut and currently teaches at the University of Virginia's creative writing program. In 2014, Alameddine was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and he won the California Book Awards Gold Medal Fiction for '' An Unnecessary Woman''. Alameddine is best known for this novel, which tells the story of Aaliya, a Lebanese woman and translator living in war-torn Lebanon. The novel "manifests traumatic signposts of the ebanesecivil war, which make it indelibly situational, and accordingly latches onto complex psychological issues." In 2017, Alameddine won the Arab American Book Award and the

Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction The Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to a work of fiction on gay male themes. As the award is presented based on themes in the work, not the sexuality or gender of the ...

for ''The Angel of History.'' He was shortlisted for the 2021

Sunday Times Short Story Award The Sunday Times Short Story Award is a British literary award for a single short story open to any novelist or short story writer from around the world who is published in the UK or Ireland. The winner receives £30,000, and the five shortliste ...

for his story, "The July War". ''The Wrong End of the Telescope'' won the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Works

* '' Koolaids: The Art of War'' (1998) * '' The Perv: Stories'' (1999) * '' I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters'' (2001) * ''

The Hakawati ''The Hakawati'' ("storyteller" in Arabic) is a novel written by Rabih Alameddine and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2008. The novel explores Lebanese families and cultures, and was well received by critics. Plot summary Set in 2003, a young man ...

'' (2008) * '' An Unnecessary Woman'' (2014) * '' The Angel of History: A Novel'' (2016) * ''The Wrong End of the Telescope'' (2021)

References

External links

*
Rabih Alameddine on Red Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alameddine, Rabih Lebanese emigrants to the United States 1959 births Living people Artists from Beirut Lebanese atheists UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Postmodern writers American Druze Writers from San Francisco Artists from San Francisco LGBT people from Lebanon Gay artists American gay writers 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American short story writers American LGBT novelists Jordanian artists Jordanian people of Lebanese descent Lebanese contemporary artists American male short story writers Prix Femina Étranger winners Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction winners 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers People from Amman Writers from Beirut