Wasini Al-A’raj . Novelist. Writer.

Dr.Wasini Al-Araj (aka) Waciny Laredj. Novelist. Short-story writer. Translator. Academic.

Awards/Honours:

  • 2007 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, winner for The Prince’s Book: The Paths of the Wooden Gates
  • 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction , longlisted for البيت الأندلسي (The Andalucian House)
  • 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, longlisted for رماد الشرق (Ashes of the East)
  • 2015 Katara Prize for Arabic Novel , inaugural winner of the grand prize valued at $260,000 for Butterfly Kingdom

Selected Works: Published more than a dozen books. Available in Arabic and French.

  • al-Bawwaba al-Zarqa (The Blue Gate, 1980)
  • Waqa’i min Awja Rajulin Ghamara Sawb al-Bahr (Facts from the Sufferings of a Man Who Ventured Toward the Sea, 1981)
  • Waq al-Ahdhiya al-Khashina (The sound of the rough shoes, 1981)
  • Ma tabaqqa min Sirat Lakhdar Hamrush (What Remains from the Biography of Lakhdar Hamrush, 1982),
  • Nuwwar al-Lawz (Almond Blossoms, 1983)
  • Masra Ahlam Maryam al-Wadi’a (The Death of Tender Maryam’s Dreams, 1984)
  • Asmak al-Barr al-Mutawahhish (The fish of the wild land, 1986)
  • Damir al-Gha’ib (1990)
  • Faji’at al-Layla al-Sabi’a ba’d al-Alf, Raml al-Maya (The Disaster of the Seventh Night after the One Thousand Night, Raml al-Maya, 1993)
  • La Gardienne des ombres. Don Quichotte à Alger (Protector of the Shadows: Don Quixote in Algiers, 1996; Harisat al-Dhilal, Don Quishotte fi’l-Jaza’ir, 1999)
  • Les Miroirs de l’aveugle (The Mirrors of the Blind ManMaraya al-Darir, 1998)
  • al-Makhtuta al-Sharqiyya (The Eastern Manuscript, 2002)
  • Kitab al-Amir: masalik abwab al-hadid (The Prince’s Book: The Paths of the Wooden Gates, 2004)
  • Al-Bayt al-Andalusi (The Andalusian House, 2011)
  • Mamlakatu al farasha (The kingdom of the batterfly, 2013)
  • Nissaou Casanova (Casanova’s women, 2016)

Married to poet Zineb Laouedj and collaborated with her on an anthology of African literature in French titled ‘Anthologie de la nouvelle narration africane’.

Education:-

  • Ph.D – University of Damascus
  • M.A – University of Damascus
  • B.A.- Arabic Literature, University of Algeria

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pix: https://www.facebook.com/AC-Wasini-Al-Araj-147133115312279/photos/

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ALGERIA