Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

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.

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