Alawiya Sobh

Alawiya Sobh
Born	Alawiya Sobh 1955 (age 69–70) Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation	Writer and novelist
Nationality	Lebanese
Education	English & Arabic Literature
Alma mater	Lebanese University

Alawiya Sobh (Arabic: علوية صبح) (born 1955) is a Lebanese writer and author.[1]

Biography

Born in Beirut, Sobh studied English & Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University.[2] Upon graduation in 1978, she pursued a career in teaching. She also began publishing articles and short stories, at first in An-Nida newspaper and then in An-Nahar. After a spell as cultural editor, she became editor-in-chief of Al-Hasnaa, a popular Arabic women's magazine, in 1986. In the early 1990s, she became editor-in-chief of women's magazine Snob Al-Hasnaa’.[3] In 2009, Sobh served on the judging panel of the Beirut39 competition.[4]

Sobh is now dedicating her time only to writing.

Works

Short Stories

• Slumber of Days (1986)

Novels (All novels were published originally at Dar Al Adab in their native Arabic language)

• 2002 - Maryam Al-Hakaya (Maryam: Keeper of the Stories)
• 2006 - Dunya (Life)
• 2009 - Ismuhu Al-Gharam (It's Called Passion)
• 2020 - An Taashak Al-Hayat (To Love Life)

Translations

• Maryam Al-Hayaka was translated into English by Seagull Books,[5] into French by Gallimard[6] and into German by Suhrkamp.[7]
• Dunya was translated into Italian by Mondadori.[8]
• Ismuhu Al-Gharam was translated into Italian by Mondadori[9] and into Romanian by Polirom.[10]

Reception of work

Sobh's work has been critically acclaimed and is the subject of numerous doctoral works and literary studies.[11][12] For her literary accomplishments and innovative writing, Sobh received the Sultan Qaboos prize in Oman in 2007.[13] Her novels Dunya and Ismuhu Al-Gharam were long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2008[14] and 2010,[15] respectively. In 2016, an eponymous award dubbed the "Alawiya Sobh Literary critique Award" was launched at Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Tétouan for participants whose critiques center around Sobh's work.[16] Maryam: Keeper of Stories was short-listed in 2019 for the EBRD Literature Prize.[17] Sobh's cumulative work then proceeded to earn her the Al Owais Award in 2019 for the category of "Stories: Novels and Drama".[18] Most recently in 2021, An Taashak Al-Hayat made the three-book short-list in Sheikh Zayed Book Award's Literature section.[19]

References

1. "Alawiya : Arabic Fiction". www.arabicfiction.org. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
2. Gropp, Lewis. "Telling Stories to Survive".
3. "Mondadori Biography". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
4. "Hay Festival". Archived from the original on 2017-07-16.
5. Maryam. The Arab List. Seagull Books.
6. "Maryam ou Le passé décomposé". 18 October 2007.
7. "Marjams Geschichten".
8. "Dunya translated into Italian".
9. "Il suo nome è passione".
10. "It's Called Passion in Romanian". Archived from the original on 2016-08-15.
11. "Banipal's biography of Alawiya Sobh". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
12. "International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies" (PDF).
13. "Alawiya Sobh".
14. "It's Called Love long-listed".
15. "Arabic Booker Prize longlist 2010". Archived from the original on 2012-02-02.
16. "جائزة علوية صبح في النقد الروائي في سلسلة بصمات إبداعية في المغرب". Retrieved 1 July 2016.
17. "EBRD Literature Prize". 6 February 2018.
18. "Al Owais Award".
19. "Sheikh Zayed Book Awards".