Hanna Mina

Hanna Mina (; 9 March 1924 – 21 August 2018) was a Syrian novelist, described in Literature from the "Axis of Evil" as the country's "most prominent" writer.

His early novels belong to the movement of social realism in the literature of Syria, and focus on class conflict; his later works contain "a more symbolic analysis of class differences". Hanna Mina spent his childhood in one of the villages near Iskenderun. Following the occupation of Turkish forces in the district (Hatay State), he moved back to Latakia with his family. Although with only an elementary school certificate, Mina used to write letters and petitions to the government on behalf of illiterates, and distributed the Communist Sawt al-Shaab (Voice of the People) newspaper alongside working as a barber.

His 1977 novel The Swamp, which invoked fragments of Mina's childhood in modern-day Hatay province of Turkey, was described by literary critic Salah Fadl as “the greatest autobiography in Arabic novel-writing, and the most abundant in brutal honesty and wealth of thought."

Among the works selected by the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), his 1993 novel Fragments of Memory: A Story of a Syrian Family was translated into English and first published by University of Texas Press. In 2004, it was republished by Interlink Books.

Death Mina died on 21 August 2018 in Damascus, aged 94. Legacy In Syria, the Culture Ministry annually awards the Hanna Mina Prize for Literature.