Ibrāhīm Kūnī

Ibrāhīm Kūnī studied at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. The recorded working language is Arabic. The field of work recorded is author, journalist and novelist. Places of work recorded in the authority are Moscow. Distinctions recorded are Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Franco-Arabic Friendship Award and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Ibrāhīm Kūnī • Born — 1948 • Occupation — Novelist • Language — Arabic

Born in 1948 in the Fezzan Region, Ghadamis City, Ibrahim al-Koni was brought up in the traditions of the Tuareg, people, who are popularly known as "the veiled men" or "the blue men." Mythological elements, spiritual quests and existential questions mingle in the writings of al-Koni, who has been "hailed as a magical realist, a Sufi fabulist, and a poetic novelist." He spent his childhood in the desert and learned to read and write Arabic when he was twelve. Al-Koni studied literature and journalism at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow and worked as a journalist in Moscow and Warsaw. He moved to Switzerland in 1993 and was living there as of 2011.

By 2007, Kuni had published more than 80 books and received numerous awards. His books have been translated from their original Arabic into 35 languages. He won the Mohamed Zafzaf Prize for the Arab Novel in 2005, and in 2008 he won the Sheikh Zayed Award for Literature. In 2015, Kuni was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.

• A Sleepless Eye: Aphorisms from the Sahara, ed. Hartmut Fähndrich, trans. Roger Allen (Syracuse University Press, 2014)

Ibrāhīm Kūnī is recorded with the occupation journalist. Recorded with the occupation novelist. Recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded as journalist, writer and novelist.