Rabih Alameddine

Rabih Alameddine studied at University of California, Los Angeles. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is painting and literature. Places of work recorded in the authority are San Francisco, Beirut and Charlottesville. Works named in the authority record are The Hakawati, I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters and An Unnecessary Woman. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and Prix Femina étranger.

• Name — Rabih Alameddine • Born — 1959 • Birthplace — Amman, Jordan • Education — University of California at Los Angeles • Occupation — Novelist

Alameddine was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. (Alameddine identifies as an atheist). He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California to pursue higher education. He earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Business in San Francisco. Alameddine is gay.

Alameddine began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. His debut novel Koolaids, which touched on both the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco and the Lebanese Civil War, was published in 1998 by Picador. The author of six novels and a collection of short stories, Alameddine was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. His queer sensibility has added a different slant to narratives about immigrants within the context of what became known as Orientalism. He has lived in San Francisco and Beirut.

• Koolaids: The Art of War (1998) • The Perv: Stories (1999) • I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters (2001) • The Hakawati (2008) • An Unnecessary Woman (2014) • The Angel of History: A Novel (2016) • The Wrong End of the Telescope (2021) • Comforting Myths: Concerning the Political in Art (2024) • The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) (2025)

Rabih Alameddine is recorded as writer, painter, engineer and university teacher.