Haitham Hussein (; born November 16, 1978) is a Syrian-Kurdish novelist, literary critic and journalist. A long-time cultural journalist for major Arabic newspapers, he has published five novels in Arabic. In 2012, he had to flee from Syria due to the ongoing
Syrian civil war and continuous censorship of his works that deal with life in the Kurdish region of Syria.
Biography
Hussein was born on November 16, 1978, in the city of
Amuda
Amuda (, ) is a town in Al Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria close to the Syria–Turkey border. As a result of the ongoing civil war, Amuda is currently under the civil control of the AANES and military control of the SDF.
History
...
in the province of
Hasaka, Syria. He worked for years as a freelance journalist specialized in cultural criticism for major Arabic newspapers, such as ''
Al-Hayat
''Al-Hayat'' ( ''Life'') was an Arabic newspaper based in Beirut from its founding 28 January 1946 to 1976 and in London after its refounding in 1988. It was a pan-Arab newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Khalid bin Sultan, that had a circulation ...
,
As-Safir
''As-Safir'' () was a leading Arabic-language daily newspaper in Lebanon. The headquarters of the daily was in Beirut. It was in circulation from March 1974 until December 2016. The last issue of the paper was published on 31 December 2016. The o ...
,
Al-Bayan,
Al-Quds
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Jud ...
'', and
''Al-Arabi'' as well as for several other Arabic newspapers and journals. As the Syrian government does not acknowledge Kurdish identity and prohibited his novels, he had to publish them informally.
Hussein lived near
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, but after his house in the Eastern
Ghouta
Ghouta ( / ALA-LC: ''Ḡūṭat Dimašq'') is a countryside area in southwestern Syria that surrounds the city of Damascus along its eastern and southern rim.
Name
Ghouta is an Arabic term (''ghuta'') for 'garden'.
Geography
The Ghouta is an ...
was bombarded, he fled the country in mid-2012 to live in the United Kingdom.
In 2015, Hussein founded the bilingual ''Al-Riwaya.net'' website, focusing on his main fields of interest, the Arabic novel and literary criticism. In his own novels, he has chosen a modern style.
He is married and has a two daughters.
Novels
* ''Aram: the Descendant of Unspoken Pains'' (2007)
* ''Hostages of Memory'' (2010)
* ''Needle of Horror'' (2014)
* ''A Weed in Paradise'' (2017)
See also
*
Syrian literature
*
Modern Arabic literature
The instance that marked the shift in Arabic literature towards modern Arabic literature can be attributed to the contact between Arab world and the West during the 19th and early 20th century. This contact resulted in the gradual replacement of ...
References
1978 births
Syrian novelists
Syrian literary critics
Living people
Syrian Kurdish people
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