Ibrāhīm Kūnī

Ibrāhīm al-Kōnī (sometimes translated as Ibrāhīm Kūnī) is a Libyan writer and is considered to be one of the most prolific Arab novelists.

Biography Born in 1948 in the Fezzan Region, Ghadamis City, Ibrahim al-Koni was brought up in the traditions of the Tuareg, people, who are popularly known as "the veiled men" or "the blue men." Mythological elements, spiritual quests and existential questions mingle in the writings of al-Koni, who has been "hailed as a magical realist, a Sufi fabulist, and a poetic novelist."

He spent his childhood in the desert and learned to read and write Arabic when he was twelve. Al-Koni studied literature and journalism at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow and worked as a journalist in Moscow and Warsaw. He moved to Switzerland in 1993 and was living there as of 2011.

Works By 2007, Kuni had published more than 80 books and received numerous awards. His books have been translated from their original Arabic into 35 languages. He won the Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for the Arab Novel in 2005, and in 2008 he won the Sheikh Zayed Award for Literature. In 2015, Kuni was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.

Selected bibliography

التبر [al-Tibr] (1990). Gold Dust, trans. Elliott Colla (American University in Cairo Press, 2008)

نزيف الحجر [Nazīf al-Ḥajar] (1990). The Bleeding of the Stone, trans. and Christopher Tingley (Interlink Books, 2013) المجوس [al-Majūs] (1990–91). The Fetishists, trans. William M. Hutchins (University of Texas at Austin, 2019) New Waw / Oasis Trilogy: واو الصغرى [Wāw al-Ṣughrā] (1997). New Waw: Saharan Oasis, trans. William M. Hutchins (University of Texas at Austin, 2014) الدمية [al-Dumya] (1998). The Puppet, trans. William M. Hutchins (University of Texas at Austin, 2010) الفزاعة [al-Fazāʿa] (1998). The Scarecrow, trans. William M. Hutchins (University of Texas at Austin, 2015) البحث عن المكان الضائع [al-Baḥth ʿan al-Makān al-Ḍāʾiʿ] (2003). The Seven Veils of Seth, trans. William M. Hutchins (Garnet Publishing, 2008) أنوبيس [Anūbīs] (2012). Anubis: A Desert Novel, trans. William M. Hutchins (American University in Cairo Press, 2005) كلمة الليل في حق النهار [Kalimat al-Layl fī Ḥaqq al-Nahār] (2019). The Night Will Have Its Say, trans. Nancy Roberts (Hoopoe, 2022)

Compilations in English

A Sleepless Eye: Aphorisms from the Sahara, ed. Hartmut Fähndrich, trans. Roger Allen (Syracuse University Press, 2014)

Awards and honours

2005: Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for the Arab Novel 2006: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2008: Sheikh Zayed Book Award 2015: Shortlisted for Man Booker International Prize