Personal Info
- Country of residence: United Kingdom
Information
Samir Al-Youssef, born in 1965, is a Palestinian-British writer and critic. He was born in Rashidieh camp with the rest of the Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon, where he lived until he was ten years old before moving to Sidon. Al-Youssef's father is from the Sunni sect, while his mother is from the Shiite minority in Palestine. Samir immigrated to Cyprus in 1989 and since 1990 he has been living in London, where he studied philosophy and obtained a Master of Arts and then a Bachelor's degree from the University of London. In 2000 he obtained British citizenship.
Samir writes in Arabic and English and some of his work has been translated into German, Italian, Greek and Norwegian. In 2004, he co-authored a book entitled Gaza: Different Stories with the Israeli author Itgar Keret. He also wrote another book entitled The Illusion of Return, which was published in 2007 and is the first novel written in English. The writer became famous thanks to his various and varied writings, as he participated in a wide range of works including literature, politics, philosophy and cultural studies. He also wrote dozens of articles and did other reviews in major Arab periodicals and newspapers such as Al-Hayat newspaper, as well as on openDemocracy.net, then the Guardian, as well as in the New Statesman.
Achievements and Awards
Samir El-Youssef was awarded the Kurt Tucholsky Award in 2005 by the Swedish branch of the organization PEN International Club, in recognition of what he had done and because of his exposure to persecution or threats in addition to living in exile.
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