Raja Alem

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Raja Alem and Mohammed Achaari at a book launch in London (2011)

Raja Alem ( Arabic رجاء عالم, DMG Raǧāʾ ʿĀlim ; * 1970 in Mecca , Hejaz , Saudi Arabia ) is a Saudi Arabian author whose works have been translated into several languages ​​and have been awarded prizes. In 2011 she received the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for her novel Tauq al-Hamâm ( Eng . The collar of the doves ) .

Life

Raja Alem was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 1970 and comes from an ancient Mecca family. She studied English literature at the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah and published her first articles in the features section of the Riyadh newspaper . Novels, plays, a biography, short stories and stories for children followed. Her works have been translated into several languages, including German, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Polish. She writes in classic Arabic and her style is described as complex and hermetic, interspersed with historical, mythical and literary references. In her more recent works she "combines traditional influences with significant features of modernity and draws attention to the more recent trends in Middle Eastern culture". Raja Alem has received several awards for her literary work, including the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction ( Arabic Booker ) in 2011 for the novel Tauq al-Hamâm (The collar of the doves). She wrote the book "first in English, to see Mecca through the eyes of a stranger and to free herself from the inherent censorship of her mother tongue". Her next novel Sarab (2019) has been published in English and German, but not in the Arabic original.

In 2011 Raja Alem and her sister, the painter Shadia Alem , exhibited the light sculpture The Black Arch at the 54th Venice Biennale . She is a member of the International PEN Club and the Al Mansouria Foundation for Art and Culture and, in a conversation in the FAZ in 2014, commented on the relationship between Islam and the 'fanatics'.

Raja Alem lives in Jeddah and Paris.

Publications

  • Nahr al-Hayawan , 1994.
  • Tariq al-Harir . Al-Markaz ath-Thaqafi al-Arabi, Beirut, Lebanon 1995.
  • Khatim , 2001.
    • 2nd edition as paperback: Almaktabah Distributors, 2007.
  • Fatma: a Novel of Arabia. Translated and with an afterword by Tom McDonough. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York 2003, ISBN 0-8156-0738-5 .
  • Sitr . Al-Markaz ath-Thaqafi al-Arabi, Beirut, Lebanon 2004.
  • My Thousand and One Nights. A Novel of Mecca. Translated by Tom McDonough. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-8156-0866-0 .
  • Tauq al-Hamam . Al-Markaz ath-Thaqafi al-Arabi, Beirut, Lebanon 2010, ISBN 978-9953-68-475-8 .
  • Sarab . Translated by Hartmut Fähndrich. Unionsverlag, Zurich 2018. ISBN 978-9-774-16876-5 .

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Raja Alem. In: Unionsverlag. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Raja Alem [Saudi Arabia]. In: international literature festival berlin. Retrieved May 23, 2020 .
  3. ↑ M. Lynx Qualey / Leri Price: On Raja Alem's 'Sarab' & Translating an Arabic Book Not Published in Arabic. In: ArabLit. August 19, 2019, accessed May 23, 2020 .
  4. ^ Oppression and murder betray Islam in FAZ of December 17, 2014, page 9
  5. ^ The town clerk of Mecca in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung of October 12, 2014, page R4
personal data
SURNAME Alem, Raja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Saudi Arabian author
DATE OF BIRTH 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Mecca , Hejaz , Saudi Arabia