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Mohammed Hasan Alwan

Mohammed Hasan Alwan
Born(1979-08-27)27 August 1979
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
NationalitySaudi Arabian
GenreNovels, short stories

Mohammed Hasan Alwan (Arabic: محمد حسن علوان; born 27 August 1979) is a Saudi Arabian novelist and the Chief Executive Officer of the Literature, Publishing, and Translation Commission affiliated with the Ministry of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, appointed in 2020. He was born in Riyadh and studied Computer Information Systems at King Saud University, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 2002. He also obtained an MBA from the University of Portland, Oregon in 2008 and Ph.D from Carleton University, Ottawa in 2016.[1]

Alwan is the third Saudi novelist to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (often referred to as the Arabic Booker) in 2017, following novelists Abdo Khal in 2010 and Raja'a Alem in 2011.[2][3]

Alwan has published five novels to date: Saqf Elkefaya (2002), Sophia (2004), Touq Altahara (2007), "Al-Qundus" (2011), and "Mouton Sageer" (2016). His work has appeared in translation in Banipal magazine ("Blonde Grass" and "Statistics", translated by Ali Azeriah); in The Guardian ("Oil Field", translated by Peter Clark);[4] and in Words Without Borders ("Mukhtar", translated by William M. Hutchins).[5]

His work was published in the Beirut39 anthology (Beirut39: New Writing from the Arab World, edited by Samuel Shimon) and in the IPAF Nadwa anthology (Emerging Arab Voices, edited by Peter Clark).

Awards and honors

In 2009-10, Alwan was chosen as one of the 39 best Arab authors under the age of 40 by the Beirut39 project. He was also a participant in the first IPAF Nadwa in 2009.

In 2013, his novel, Al-Qundus, was shortlisted in the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (2013).[6] In 2015, Alwan won the Arab World Institute's Prix de la Littérature Arabe for Al-Qundus, translated to French by Stéphanie Dujols as Le castor.[7] It was considered the best novel to be translated into French in 2015.[8] In 2017, he won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction for A Small Death, a novel about Ibn Arabi.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Biography". AlAlwan.com. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  2. ^ "Mohammed Hasan Alwan". Saudipedia. 2024-08-19. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  3. ^ "Contributors - Mohammed Hasan Alwan". Banipal (UK) Magazine of Modern Arab Literature. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Oil Field by Mohammed Hasan Alwan, translated by Peter Clark". The Guardian. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  5. ^ Alwan, Mohammed Hasan (August 2011). "Mukhtar". wordswithoutborders.org. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  6. ^ Farrington, Joshua (9 January 2013). "Shortlist for International Prize for Arabic Fiction". The Bookseller. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  7. ^ Lynx Qualey, M. (30 September 2015). "Mohammed Hasan Alwan Wins Prix de la Littérature Arabe for 'The Beaver'". arablit.org. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Mohammed Hasan Alwan | International Prize for Arabic Fiction". www.arabicfiction.org. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  9. ^ "Mohammed Hasan Alwan wins 2017 International Prize for Arabic Fiction". arabicfiction.org. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2017.