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about the authors & works
Zaher Omareen
ZaherOmareen is a Syrianwriter andartist living in theUK,whohas
worked on independent cultural initiatives in Syria and Europe. His
short story ‘First Safety Maneuver’ won a prize awarded by the
Danish Institute in Damascus and the 2012 Copenhagen Festival
of Literature. Omareen was a participating artist in the Victoria
and Albert exhibition
Disobedient Objects
and has been working
on the new Syrian art archive at the British Museum. He is an
editor of
Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline
(2014,
Saqi Books) – winner of the English PEN award, for challenging the
culture of violence in today’s Syria. Zaher is completing his PhD in
documentary cinema and new media at Goldsmiths College.
Tales of the Orontes River
is a forthcoming, interlocking collection
of short stories drawn from the 1982 Hama massacre. In deft
strokes, these stories detail ordinary people seeking to live their
lives in the backdrop of a shattering reality always just around the
corner.
Translated from Arabic by Alice Guthrie.