Top 39 Arabic authors under 39

For Beirut39, "39 authors under 39" were chosen by a jury of four well-known and respected Arab writers, academics and journalists: Abdo Wazen, Lebanese poet and cultural editor of the international daily Al-Hayat newspaper; Alawiya Sobh, Lebanese writer; Saif Al Rahbi, Omani poet and editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Nazwa; and Dr. Gaber Asfour, Egyptian literary critic and Honorary President of the judging panel.

One author on the list:

Abdelkader BENALI (Morocco/Netherlands)

Abdelkader Benali was born in The Netherlands in 1975, of Moroccan origins. Benali published his first novel Bruiloft aan zee ('Wedding by the Sea') in 1996, which received the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize. For his second novel, De langverwachte ('The Long-Awaited', 2002), Benali was awarded the Libris Literature Prize. He has since published the novels Laat het morgen mooi weer zijn ('Let Tomorrow Be Fine', 2005) and Feldman en ik ('Feldman and I', 2006). He also writes plays and occasionally works in the field of journalism. In 2005, together with the historian Herman Obdeijn, he published Marokko door Nederlandse ogen 1605-2005 ('Morocco Through Dutch Eyes 1605-2005').

Read about the other writers on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue