Muhammad Abdallah Muthanna (born 1945 or 1947) is a

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

i novelist,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and short story writer. He was born in Hudaida and was educated in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. In the 1970s, he was jailed several times by the authorities for his activities as a political dissident. He has worked in journalism as well as in government.Biographical notes in ''The Literature of Modern Arabia''
/ref> He is a prolific writer of fiction and drama and is well known for his short stories, which have been translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. His first collection of stories, entitled ''Fi giawf al-layl'' (In the Heart of the Night), came out in 1976. Subsequent collections include ''Al-jabal yabtasim aydan'' (1978) and ''Rihlat al-umr'' (2002). In 1990, he won an Arabic short story award presented in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

, Egypt.

References

1940s births 20th-century Yemeni novelists Living people Year of birth uncertain People from Al Hudaydah Governorate Yemeni expatriates in Egypt {{Yemen-writer-stub