Ayman Sikseck (or Ayman Siksik or Ayman Siksek, , ; born 1984,

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

) is an Israeli–Arab author,

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

opinion journalist Opinion journalism is journalism that makes no claim of objectivity. Although distinguished from advocacy journalism in several ways, both forms feature a subjective viewpoint, usually with some social or political purpose. Common examples inclu ...

and

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

. He writes mainly in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and his debut novel ''To Jaffa'' was published in 2010. He writes for the ''

Ha'aretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew and English in the Berliner fo ...

'' newspaper. Siksek won the

National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; ; ), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; ), is the library dedicated to collecting the cultural treasures of Israel and of Judaism, Jewish Cultural heritage, heritage. The library holds more ...

's 2013/2014 scholarship to encourage young Israeli writers.

Biography

Sikseck was born to a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

family in

, where he still lives today. He earned a BA in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

and General and Comparative Literature at the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. His first story was published when he was 18, in ''Sof'Shavua'' weekend supplement of ''

Ma'ariv ''Maariv'' or ''Maʿariv'' (, ), also known as ''Arvit'', or ''Arbit'' (, ), is a Jewish prayer service held in the evening or at night. It consists primarily of the evening '' Shema'' and ''Amidah''. The service will often begin with two ...

''. About a year later he published another short story as part of the ''

'' newspaper short story competition, and began publishing a series of short stories titled ''Jaffa Tel Aviv'' in the Culture and Literature supplement of the same paper. This short stories series was the basis for his debut novel, ''To Jaffa,'' in 2010. ''To Jaffa'' was translated into German in 2012, and into

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

in 2014. Between 2007 and 2010 Sikseck was among the prominent literary critics of ''Haaretz'' books supplement. Previously, he published literature reviews in the culture section of the Web site ''

Ynet Ynet (stylized in all lowercase) is an Israeli news and general-content website, and the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronoth'' newspaper. History Ynet launched on June 6, 2000, in Hebrew, following other Hebrew outlet's website launches ...

''. He writes op-eds in ''

Yediot Aharonot (, ; lit. "Latest News") is an Israeli daily mass market newspaper published in Tel Aviv. Founded in 1939, is Israel's largest paid newspaper by sales and circulation and has been described as "undoubtedly the country's number-one paper."

''. Short stories, poems and articles of Sikseck were published in the magazine ''Alachson''; In the poetry magazine ''Sha'ar La'Shira 2004'' of '' Helicon''; In the quarterly magazine of ''Keshet Hadasha''; In the Arab–Jewish quarterly magazine of ''Du-et''; And the '' Maayan'' poetry magazine. Sikseck was also the co-editor of the collection of poems "Tell it not in Gath: The Palestinian Nakba in Hebrew poetry, 1948–1958," (in Hebrew) edited by Hannan Hever. In an interview to the ''Sheva Leilot'' supplement of ''Yediot Ahronot'' on June 3, 2016, he

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as gay.

References

External links

List of publications of Ayman Sikseck

's catalog.
Ayman Sikseck
on Lexicon of Modern Hebrew Literature 1984 births Living people Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Palestinian writers Israeli literary critics Palestinian literary critics Palestinian gay men Israeli opinion journalists Palestinian opinion journalists Israeli Arab LGBTQ people Israeli Arab journalists Israeli journalists Israeli gay writers Israeli LGBTQ journalists Gay journalists Gay Muslims 21st-century Israeli LGBTQ people Hebrew-language writers 21st-century Palestinian LGBTQ people {{LGBT-bio-stub