Ali al-Muqri

Ali al-Muqri (علي المقري) (born in Taiz) is a Yemeni novelist and writer. He has worked as a cultural editor for several publications and was subject to three takfiri campaigns in 1997, 2003 and 2013 by religious extremists for his opinions and writing, which they considered in defiance of religious tradition, especially Al-Khamar wa-al-nabidh fi al-Islam (Wine and Nabid in Islam) and Ḥurma. Two of his recent novels Black Taste, Black Odor and The Handsome Jew have been long listed for the Arab Booker Prize. He has also been awarded the French Prize for Arabic Literature for Ḥurma, translated into French by Khaled Osman and Ola Mehanna. Some of Al-Muqri’s work has appeared in The New York Times, the French daily, Libération and in Banipal magazine. Ali al-Muqri became the chief-editor of Al-Ḥikmah in 1997, a journal of the Yemeni Writers Association. As of 2007 he has served as the editor of the literary journal, Ǧaymān. These days, Ali al-Muqri lives in Paris, France. He tweets @AliAlMuqri.