Khalaf Ali Alkhalaf

Khalaf Ali Alkhalaf (Arabic: خلف علي الخلف; born 10 November 1969 in Raqqa, Syria) is a Syrian poet and writer who holds Swedish citizenship. He lived in Saudi Arabia (1993–2001) and Greece (2001–2002) before returning to Syria and, once again, Saudi Arabia. In the spring of 2008, Alkhalaf moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where he currently resides.

Biography

Alkhalaf's first book, N of Shepherds, appeared in 2004. At the end of 2005, he founded the website Jidar, an independent cultural platform in support of freethinking as well as beginning and independent writers. Jidar has been rated first among the Syrian culture websites. The Syrian government blocked the website later. Alkhalaf had been called for investigation by the Syrian Intelligence authorities almost every time he published one of his works. and he could not return to Syria until 2013, when Raqqa was no longer controlled by Bashar al-Assad's government.

In September 2008, Alkhalaf, together with other Arab writers (Hamed Bin Aqeel and Suzan Khawatmi), founded Jidar for Culture and Publishing, a non-profit publishing house. At this time, Jidar began publishing many books, especially those criticizing the Assad regime, and diaries of Syrian prisoners.

He has regularly published his work in the newspaper Elaph since 2003, and his writings have also appeared on other websites and blogs like Jidar and Ahewar. He has also published in many Arabic-language newspapers.

Alkhalaf was awarded a prize at the Fujairah International Monodrama Festival competition in 2009. He won the second prize by writing the script of a monodrama called "Gilgamesh Wears Tennis Shoes."

In addition to Elaph, Alkhalaf has published on newspaper and magazines sites in the Arab world.

Khalaf studied Economics at the University of Aleppo. Additionally, he studied International Relations at Malmö University, Content Production at Malmö Yrkeshögskola, he has a Master's program in Journalism at Södertörn University. He Also Studied Digital Humanities at Kalmar University,