Bassam Almusallam
Bassam Almusallam (Arabic: بسام المسلّم) is a Kuwaiti award-winning novelist, short story writer, and former assistant editor at KUNA.[1] He has published three books including two short story collections, Under the Pigeons Tower (2010) and The Banner: Stories in The Windward (2013) which won Laila al-Othman Prize in the same year.[2] His short story, Adham Washing Machine, won a competition organized by Al-Arabi magazine and the London-based BBC Arabic in 2012.[3]
His debut novel, Valley of the Sun: The Phoenix Memo (2016), explores behind the scenes of the Syrian Civil War following the journey of a Kuwaiti ASU alumnus to join the Nusra Front militia fight against the Assad government between 2013 and 2014.[4]
Syrian novelist Fawwaz Haddad lauded the novel and Kuwaiti novelist Ismail Fahd Ismail who praised it for its "boldness", describing it as "tragedy of the time/now".[4]
The novel won the State Award for Literature in 2018, and is currently under translation to Chinese by China Intercontinental Press (CIP).[5]
References
- ^ https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticlePrintPage.aspx?id=1470938&language=en
- ^ https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2360845&Language=ar
- ^ "مسابقة القصة القصيرة لبي بي سي اكسترا". BBC News Arabic (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ a b العرب, Al Arab. "مذكرات كويتية عن الصراع في سوريا | زكي الصدير". صحيفة العرب (in Arabic). Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2769012&language=en