Samih al qasim biography of albert
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Suhail Khoury is a composer and a ney and clarinet player who has helped transform the musical and cultural landscape of Palestine generally and East Jerusalem in particular by building institutions that have instilled love and passion for music in every home, as well as national pride in Arab cultural heritage.
Suhail Khoury was born in 1963 in Jerusalem, where he attended the Collège des Frères.
Khoury was raised in a family whose members were part of the cultural and social activism scen. His great aunt, Elizabeth Nasir, founded Jerusalem’s Rawdat El-Zuhur kindergarten. His mother, Samia Khoury, was president of the school for 17 years and is herself an educator and a social activist; she imparted to Khoury a passion for music and Palestinian culture.1
His aunt, Rima Tarazi, is a Palestinian composer, and his mother’s cousin, Sumaya Farhat Nasir, is a peace activist and writer.2 Another cousin, Kamal Nasir, was a poet.3 His great-aunt, Nabiha Nasir, founded a girls’ sc
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This article explores the origins of Palestinian literature vis-à-vis the historical, political and literary backgrounds of Palestine. It argues that understanding the forces that informed Palestinian writers is necessary to appreciate this literature. From the British Mandate to 1948 and its aftermath to the 1967 War and the continued Occupation, the article looks at major themes as writers search for imaginative forms to reconstruct their history and voice their identity. Going beyond the imposed legacy of history, Palestinian writers reclaim their loss and dispossession in miraculous words. The emergence of “Poetry of Resistance” in the 1950s and thereafter is a witness to the resilience of Palestinians inside Israel. Moreover, as Palestinian writing continues to flourish, it builds on early writing, rejecting the “nightmare of history.” Palestinian literature is at the heart of the Palestinian struggle.
Ghassan Kanafani has been credited for coining the label “Resi
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Middle East Literature in Translation
Syracuse University Press’s series Middle East Literature in Translation is designed to make writing from the languages of the Middle East (Arabic, Turkish, and Persian, but also Kurdish, Urdu, Turkmen, Uzbek, etc.) available to English-speaking readers. The books in the series include short stories, novels, poetry, memoirs, and works on literary criticism.
The DesertOr, the Life and Adventures of Jubair Wali al-Mammi
Albert Memmi
Monarch of the SquareAn Anthology of Muhammad Zafzaf’s Short Stories
Translated from the Arabic by Mbarek Sryfi, Roger Allen
The Story of JosephA Fourteenth-Century Turkish Morality Play by Sheyyad Hamza
Translated from the Turkish by Bill Hickman