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Original language: Deutsch
Mohammad al-Matroud
Writer and poet from Qamishli in northern Syria (born in 1969) has been publishing since the 1980s. He was editor-in-chief of the local cultural magazine "Narjis" (The Narcissus) and editor of several magazines such as "Ayat" (Signs) and Qasioun. In the 1990s, he organized a poetry biennial and several poetry forums in his hometown. Several volumes of poetry were reviewed in national and Arabic newspapers. In 2010 he went to Kuwait as a journalist. He returned to Syria in April 2011. Born to an Arab father and a Kurdish mother, he made it his mission to address the tensions between the different ethnic groups in north-eastern Syria.
Zaza Burchuladze
Writer from Tbilisi/Georgia (born in 1973) studied at the National Academy of Arts in Tbilisi. He has published twelve books and screenplays to date. He translates Russian authors, including Dostoyevsky, Sorokin and Bitov, into Georgian. Burchuladze is considered one of the most important writers of post-Soviet Georgian literature. With his scandalous themes and language experiments, he initially provoked outrage in Georgian society and was ignored by critics for a long time. Since the publication of his novels, he has become one of his country's leading intellectuals and promising authors.
In 2011, he received the award for the best Georgian novel of the year for his book "The Inflatable Angel"
Dara Nawaf Abdulla
Writer from Damascus/Syria (born 1990) belongs to the large group of young creatives who have accompanied the revolution artistically and journalistically from the beginning. He has published in important Arabic publications such as: al-Hayat (based in London), Nawafez (cultural supplement of the magazine al-Mustaqbal in Beirut) and on the cultural website Ghawoon.
Kheder Alaga
Poet, journalist and literary critic from Damascus/Syria (born 1963). Studied jury at the University of Damascus. Since 1995 he has published several volumes of poetry and linguistic studies on Syrian literature and poetry in Syria and Lebanon. He has edited numerous books and anthologies.
Ramy Al-Asheq
is a Syrian-Palestinian poet, journalist and curator (born 1989). He has published three volumes of poetry in Arabic. His texts have been published in various anthologies and literary journals in Bosnian, German, English, French, Kurdish and Spanish. Some of his poems have been turned into songs, performances and visual art. In 2015, he was awarded a literary prize by the Al-Qattan Foundation in Ramallah. At the end of 2017, Al-Asheq launched the German-Arabic cultural magazine FANN. He is also a curator for the Literaturhaus Berlin and co-founder of the Arab-German Literature Days Berlin. In 2018, he received a literature scholarship from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin as well as two residency scholarships for the Künstlerhaus Lukas (Ahrenshoop) and the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen.
Raed Wahesh
Palestinian poet from Damascus (born 1981) is one of the most important poets of his generation. As a defender of freedom of expression and the free word, he has accompanied events with his writing since the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
Roya Issa
Syrian painter from Damascus (born 1973), has taken part in several exhibitions in Damascus. She has worked as a film decorator for various TV and film productions. Since fleeing Damascus, she has lived in Cairo with her daughter.
Contact
Sigrun Reckhaus
M reckhaus@boell.de
