Writing in the Time of War: a Conversation with Khaled Khalifa

This event is part of Celebrating Syria: a Festival of Arts and Culture. For the full festival programme, please visit celebratingsyria.org

Khaled Khalifa was our guest at the first Celebrating Syria Festival 2017 when he joined on skype from Damascus. Five years on, and having written two more critically acclaimed novels, Khalifa will be with us in person, to tell us about his experience in the last 11 years of writing in the time of war, or writing the war.

A rare opportunity to meet one of Syria’s most celebrated novelists.

A collection of Khalifa's books will be on sale at the event.

Khaled Khalifa

Khaled Khalifa, born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1964, is a novelist, screenwriter and poet living in Damascus. In addition to six novels to date, he has written numerous scripts for TV dramas and films, several of which have won awards. Three of his novels are published in English translation, all translated by Leri Price, with ‘Death is Hard Work’ winning the 2019 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation as well as being a finalist in the US National Book Award for Translated Literature.

Earlier novels have been shortlisted for both Arabic and translation literary awards with ‘No Knives in the Kitchens of this City’ being awarded the 2017 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.

Khalifa’s latest work Lam Yasulli ’alayhum Ahad: No One Prayed Over Their Graves is a historical novel set in Aleppo. It was longlisted for the 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction. No One Prayed Over Their Graves will be published by Faber and Faber in the UK in September and FSG, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, in the USA.

Ticket philosophy

We are committed to making Celebrating Syria accessible to everyone. For each ticketed event three different prices are available, following the ‘solidarity economy’ approach. The highest price is intended for high waged, the middle price for medium waged and the lowest price (always £1) for low waged or unwaged. This means you can choose the price that suits you. By choosing a higher price, if you can afford it, you are supporting the festival and enabling lower earners to attend festival events. We base our ticketing structure on trust, so no evidence of income is required.

As usual, asylum seekers can attend all events for free. If you require free tickets, please contact info@rrsoc.org or on 0161 222 9779.