ZAKARIA TAMIR

• Born in Damascus, 1931
• Was forced to leave school in 1944
• Started story writing in 1958
• Living in Britain since 1981

Work Experience

• 1960-1963, Writers and Publishing Dept. at Syria Ministry of Culture
• 1963-1965, editor of weekly Al Mawqef Al Arabi, Syria
• 1965-1966, Screenwriter for Jeddah TV, KSA
• 1967, started his work at Syria Ministry of Information
• 1967-1970, Head of Drama Dept. at Syrian TV
• 1970-1971, Editor-in-Chief of kids Rafi magazine, Syria
• 1972-1975, Editor-in-Chief of Al Mawqef Al Adabi magazine, Syria
• 1975-1977, Editor-in-Chief of kids Osama magazine, Syria
• 1978-1980, Editor-in-Chief of Al Ma’arifa magazine, Syria
• 1980-1981, Syria Ministry of Culture
• 1981-1982, Managing Editor of Al Dustoor magazine, London
• 1983-1988, Culture Editor of Al Tadhamon magazine, London
• 1988-1993, managing Editor of Al Naqid magazine and culture editor at Riyadh Al Rayes Publishing House, London

Other Activities

• Co-founded Arab Writers Union in Syria 1969, member of its Executive Bureau, and Deputy Chairman for four years
• Participated in many literary events in Arab countries
• Jury member of many Arab and international literary competitions

Decision of the General Secretariat   

Zakaria Tamir is one of the most important Arab story writers and novelists whose works criticise society and politics. The criticism might take a symbolic or open form. His style is a mixture of bitter sarcasm and violent attack, without neglecting style that has no pretension at all. In his works, he tackles Arab events with the causes behind them.

Tamir is capable of transforming the normal and familiar aspects of everyday life into samcthing extremely exceptional.

Famous Works

• The White Horse Whinny
• The Spring of Ash
• The Thunder
• Damascus in Flames
• Why the River Keeps Silent
• Tigers in the Tenth Day
• Noah’s Call
• We will Laugh
• Ugh!
• The Sour Grapes