#Basim Khandaqji

[good-old-gossip]

Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel A Mask, the Colour of the Sky.

The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

The prize was accepted on Khandaqji’s behalf by Rana Idriss, owner of Dar al-Adab, the book’s Lebanon-based publisher.

Khandaqji was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus in 1983, and wrote short stories until his arrest in 2004 at the age of 21.

He was convicted and jailed on charges relating to a deadly bombing in Tel Aviv, and completed his university education from inside prison via the internet.

The mask in the novel’s title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli.

Khandaqji’s book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition. Nabil Suleiman, who chaired the jury, said the novel “dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism”.

[mirkobloom77]

‼️🇵🇸💚 Imprisoned Palestinian writer wins top fiction prize

🔸 Source: Al Jazeera

Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds a blue identity card belonging to an Israeli in the pocket of an old coat. He adopts the mask of the occupier in an attempt to understand the Zionist mindset. As “Nur” becomes “Ur”, he joins an archaeological dig on a settlement, and historical Palestine is revealed. In the chasm between Nur and Ur – between the blue Israeli identity card, and the pass required by Palestinians for travel within Israel; and between the character’s suppressed original narrative, and the new dominant one – will Nur succeed in throwing off his mask, triumphing over Ur and reaching the light?

[arablit]

Two Palestinian Novels Make 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction's 6-Book Shortlist

FEBRUARY 14, 2024 — The shortlist of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced today, at a press conference in Riyadh. The six-book shortlist was announced by this year’s Chair of Judges, Syrian writer Nabil Suleiman, who was joined by judges Sonia Nimr, František Ondráš, Mohamed Shoair, and Hammour Ziada, as well as IPAF’s Chair of Trustees Yasir Suleiman and the prize’s…

[soon-palestine]

[arablit]

Palestinian Prison Novel Wins 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction

APRIL 28, 2024 — Judges today announced the winner of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction: Basim Khandaqji’s قناع بلون السماء (A Mask, the Color of the Sky). Photo by Ranya Abdelrahman. The announcement was made in Abu Dhabi, on the eve of the city’s annual book fair, by this year’s chair of judges Nabil Suleiman. As Khandaqji is serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison, the award…

[arablit]

From Osama al-Eissa's 'The Madmen of Bethlehem'

Osama al-Eissa was shortlisted for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction, for his The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem, awarded to fellow Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji​​ for his fourth novel, A Mask, the Color of the Sky. Al-Eissa’s Madmen of Bethlehem was shortlisted for the 2015 Sheikh Zayed Book Award and has not yet appeared in English translation. This translation was first…