Djamel Amrani was born on 29 August 1935 in

Sour El-Ghozlane Sour El-Ghizlane (or Souk El Ghoziane) is a town and commune in Algeria's central-northern, just-landlocked Bouïra Province. According to the 1998 census it has a population of 42,179. History Pre Historic A prehistoric tool (biface) testify ...

(Algeria) and died on 2 March 2005 in Algiers. He was an Algerian writer of French expression.Jean Déjeux, Dictionnaire des auteurs maghrébins de langue française, Paris, Karthala, 1984 (). Djamel (or Djamal) Amrani was educated in 1952, at the communal school of Bir Mourad Raïs. On 19 May 1956 he participated in the strike of

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

n students. In 1957, he was arrested,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

d and imprisoned by the colonial army. In 1958, when he was released from prison, he was expelled to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. In 1960, he published his first book at Éditions de Minuit, Le Témoin. That same year, he met

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

and created the

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

''Chaâb''. In 1966, he became a producer of a

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

ian program at the ORTF, and began a

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

career alongside Leïla Boutaleb on Algerian radio. In 2004, he was awarded the Pablo Neruda Medal, the international distinction of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

References

1935 births 2005 deaths Algerian male poets Algerian essayists Algerian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Algerian poets 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century essayists 20th-century Algerian male writers {{Algeria-writer-stub