The Riches of the Desert: A Conversation with Author Ibrahim al-Koni (October 2024)
Join us for a conversation with award-winning author Ibrahim al-Koni. Winner of the Mohamed Zefzaf Prize for the Arabic Novel (2005), the Sheikh Zayed Book Award (2008) and finalist for the International Booker Prize (2015), al-Koni's writing emerges from his Tuareg heritage and explores myth, spirituality and the foundational questions of being human.
In Arabic with English translation.
About the speaker
Ibrahim al-Koni was born in 1948 in the desert of the Tuareg, Libya. He grew up there, learning to read and write Arabic at the age of 12 years. He studied comparative literature at the Gorky Institute in Moscow, and was a journalist in Moscow and Warsaw. He has lived in Switzerland since 1993. His storied literary career comprises over 80 books, including novels, short stories, poems and aphorisms, all inspired by the desert. His works have been translated into 35 languages. Works translated into English include: Bleeding of the Stone, translated by May Jayyusi and Christopher Tingley, Interlink/Arris (2004); Anubis, translated by William M.Hutchins, AUC Press (2005); The Seven Veils of Seth translated by William M Hutchins, Garnet Publishing (2008); Gold Dust, translated by Elliot Colla, Arabia Books (2008), and The Night Will Have Its Say, translated by Nancy Roberts, AUC Press (2023).
For more information, contact [email protected].
