Syrian author and critic Ezzat Omar passed away on Friday evening, December 22, 2023. He had been residing in the UAE since 1990, contributing significantly to the cultural landscape through numerous articles and studies focused on the UAE literature.

Ezzat Omar was a prominent and engaged figure in the local cultural scene for an extended period. He was born in Manbij and received his education in its schools. He completed his studies at the Faculty of Arts, the University of Aleppo, graduating in 1977, after which he held positions at the Directorate of Culture in Aleppo and later at the Institute of Arab Scientific Heritage, University of Aleppo, until 1990.

The late author was a distinguished member of the Emirates Writers Union and served on the Editorial Board of the UAE National Cultural Encyclopaedia. Ezzat Omar was also a respected judge for various literary awards and actively engaged in critical seminars both domestically and internationally. His recent contributions included work for the Sharjah Cultural Magazine.

Ezzat Omar made substantial contributions to literary criticism, short stories, novels, children’s literature, and adolescent literature. He authored numerous creative and critical books, some of which include:

“Cage Looking for Birds,” a novel serialized in ten episodes, was published in the supplement of Al Khaleej in 1991 as a weekly series.

“Golden Windows” is a collection of short stories for children that was published by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, in 1996.

The “Ghassan Novels Series” comprises 13 novels for young people, published by Ammon Publishing House in Jordan, 2001.

“Butterfly Wings” is a collection of short stories for children, published by the Sharjah Children and Youth Centres, 2002.

“Sea Mirrors”, is a compilation of critical studies on the story and novel in the UAE, published by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, 2001.

“Pages from Arabic Medical Literature, The Legacy of Doctors- Ibn Batlan as a Model”, is a publication edited by Dar Al Fikr, Damascus, 2003.

“Trends of Narrative Discourse in the Emirati and Arabic Novel: Analytical Readings” is a publication by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, in 2003.

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“Sleeping on the Cloud”, a long story for children, published by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, Sharjah, 2003.

“Enchanted Butterflies: The Democracy of Dialogue, Not the Democracy of Interests” is a publication by the Arab Diffusion Foundation, Beirut, 2005.

“Restoring the Human Common: Vision on the New Poem” is a critical study published in Sharjah in 2008.

“Ambassadors of Imagination: Syrian Poetic Voices in the UAE” is a publication by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, UAE, 2009.

“Fountains of Speech: Syrian Narrative Voices in the UAE” is a publication by the Ministry of Culture and Youth, UAE, 2009.

“Questions of Modernity and Identity” is a publication by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, 2012.

“Sociology of the Emirati Narrative” is a publication by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, 2011.

“Salem bin Ali Al Owais: Poetic Discourse and the Mechanisms of its Construction” is a publication by the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation, Dubai, 2014.

“The Phenomenon of Violence in the Arab Narrative Discourse” is a publication released by the Dubai Cultural Magazine, Dubai, December 2014.

“Word and Image: Analytical and Aesthetic Readings” is a publication by the Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, 2017.

“Khalfan bin Musabah: The Bird of Poetry” is a publication by the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation, Dubai, 2017.

“Nasser Jubran: The Shine of Writing and the Artist’s Anxiety” is a publication by the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation in Dubai, released in 2018.

“The Impact of Modernism and Post-Modernism on Emirati Narratives”, published by the Emirates Writers Union, Sharjah, 2018.

“Postmodernism: Intertextuality, Juxtaposition, and the Adventure of Experimentation, published by Dar Al Ghad, Sharjah, 2020.

“The Traveling Text: A Research on Narrative Patterns in Fiction”, published by Dar Al Ghad, Sharjah, 2020