Sinan Antoon () is an Iraqi poet, novelist, scholar, and literary translator. He has been described as "one of the most acclaimed authors of the Arab world."

Alberto Manguel Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine Canadian, Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former director of the National Library of Argentina. He is a cosmopolitan and polyglo ...

described him as "one of the great fiction writers of our time.” He is an associate professor at the

Gallatin School of Individualized Study The Gallatin School of Individualized Study is a liberal arts school within New York University. Students at Gallatin design an interdisciplinary concentration based on their specific interests and career goals. Most courses can be taken at any ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Life and career

Antoon was born in 1967 in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

. He received his B.A. in English with distinction from the

University of Baghdad The University of Baghdad (UOB) (, also known as Baghdad University) is a public university, public research university in Baghdad, Iraq. It is the largest university in Iraq and the tenth largest in the Arab world. History The College of Isl ...

in 1990 with minors in Arabic and Translation. He left Iraq in 1991 after the onset of the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

and moved to the United States. He completed an M.A. in Arab Studies from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

in 1995. In 2006, he received his Ph.D. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in Arabic and Islamic Studies. His doctoral dissertation was the first study on the 10th century poet, Ibn al-Hajjaj and the genre of poetry he pioneered (). "He was one of a coterie of dissident diasporic Iraqi intellectuals who opposed the 2003 US occupation of his homeland that led to the current post-colonial quagmire." Antoon was featured in the 2003 documentary film ''

About Baghdad ''About Baghdad'' is a documentary film shot in Baghdad, Iraq in July 2003, 3 months after the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime. Additionally, It is the first documentary film to have been made in Iraq following the fall of the Baath regim ...

,'' which he also co-directed and co-produced. His articles have appeared in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

'', and in pan-Arab dailies including ''

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 ...

'', al-Akhbar, ''

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 ...

,'' and al-Quds al-Arabi where he writes a biweekly opinion colum

His poems and novels have been translated to thirteen languages. He is also a co-founder and co-editor of the e-zine ''

Jadaliyya ''Jadaliyya'' (" dialectic") is an independent ezine founded in 2010 by the Arab Studies Institute (ASI) to cover the Arab World and the broader Middle East. It publishes articles in Arabic, French, English and Turkish, and is run primarily o ...

''.

Literary works

Poetry

Antoon has published two collections of poetry in Arabic: ''Laylun Wahidun fi Kull al-Mudun'' (One Night in All Cities) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2010) and Kama fi al-Sama (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2020). He has published two collections in English;''The Baghdad Blues'' (Harbor Mountain Press, 2006) and
Postcards from the Underworld
' (Seagull Books, 2023).

Novels

Antoon has published five novels: * (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 2002 and later al-Jamal, 2014) was widely acclaimed in the Arab world and described as "the Iraqi novel par excellence." It was translated to English by Rebecca Johnson and the author as ''I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody'' and published by CityLights Books in 2006. Other translations include German ( (Lenos), Norwegian, Italian, and Portuguese. * (''The Pomegranate Alone'') (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2010) was translated by the author and published by Yale University Press in 2013 as ''The Corpse Washer'' and was longlisted for the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction. It won the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Literary Translation. The Argentinian writer Alberto Manguel described as "one of the most extraordinary novels he's read in a long time." Th
French
translation () was published by Actes Sud in 2017 and won the 2017 for the best Arabic novel translated to French in 2017. Its translation in Malayalam language in the title was done by Dr. Shamnad N, Head of the department, University College, Trivandrum, Kerala. * (Ave Maria) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2012) was shortlisted for the

International Prize for Arabic Fiction The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) (), also known as "the Arabic Booker", is regarded as the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic creative writing ...

(The Arabic Booker) and was translated to Spanish by María Luz Comendador and published by Turner Libros in May 2014 under the title . The English translation (by Maia Tabet) was published in 2017 as The Baghdad Eucharist by Hoopoe Books (AUC Press). * (Index) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2016). Was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. It was translated by Jonathan Wright into English and published by Yale University Press in 2020 as
The Book of Collateral Damage
'. *
Khuzama
' (Lavender) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2023). A novel about two Iraqi refugees living in the United States. One fled dictatorship in the 1990s and the other fled the post-2003 sectarian ethnic cleansing. It was translated to Persian by Mohammad Hazbae Zadeh and published b
Ofoq
It was also translated into French and published by Actes Su

Honors and awards

* 201
Prix de la Litterature Arabe
for "Seul le Grenadier" (Actes Sud, 2017, tr. Leila Mansur) (Wahdaha Shajarat al-Rumman/The Corpse Washer). * 2017 "Fihris"(Index) longlisted for th
International Prize for Arabic Fiction
*2016/2017: Fellow at th
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
(Institute of Advanced Study in Berlin). *2014
Saif Ghobash Prize for Literary Translation
for his translation of his own novel ''The Corpse Washer'' (The first self-translation to win the prize.) *2014:

Arab American Book Award The Arab American Book Award, established in 2006, is an annual literary award to celebrate and support the research of, and the written work of, Arab Americans and their culture. The Arab American Book Award encourages the publication and excelle ...

for ''The Corpse Washer'' *2014
Lannan Residency
(Marfa, TX). *2013:''Ya Maryam'' (''Ave Maria'') shortlisted for the 2013 International Prize of Arabic Fiction (The Arabic Booker) *2013:

Berlin Prize The Berlin Prize is a residential fellowship at the Hans Arnhold Center, awarded by the American Academy in Berlin to scholars and artists. Each year, about 20 fellows are selected. The stated mission of the program is to improve the transatlan ...

Fellow at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

*2012: National Translation Award for his translation of

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish (; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinians, Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet. In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declarat ...

's ''In the Presence of Absence'' from the

American Literary Translators Association The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is an organization in the United States dedicated to literary translation. ALTA promotes literary translation through its annual ALTA conference and year-round events structured around the creatio ...

*2008: Postdoctoral Fellowship
EUME
(Europe in the Middle East/The Middle East in Europe), Berlin, Germany. *2002

for Dissertation Research in Original Sources.

Works

Books *
The Poetics of the Obscene: Ibn al-Hajjaj and Sukhf
'' Harvard University Press. 2006. *''The Baghdad Blues.'' Harbor Mountain Press. 2007. . * * ''Ya Maryam'' (''Ave Maria''). Dar al-Jamal. 2012. * *
The Baghdad Eucharist
'. Oxford University Press. 2017. . *
The Book of Collateral Damage
'. Yale University Press. 28 May 2019. . Film * ''

References

External links

Official WebsiteDemocracy Now! Biography
*
Biography
from the

Berlin International Literature Festival The Berlin International Literature Festival () or ''ilb'' is an annual event based in Berlin. Every September, the festival presents contemporary poetry, prose, nonfiction, graphic novels and international children's and young adult literature. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Antoon, Sinan Living people 1967 births Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni New York University faculty Middle Eastern studies scholars Writers from Baghdad American people of Iraqi descent 21st-century Iraqi novelists Iraqi film directors 20th-century Iraqi poets University of Baghdad alumni 21st-century Iraqi poets