Khaled Khalifa

Khaled Khalifa was born in 1964 near Aleppo, Syria. He is the fifth child of a family of thirteen siblings. He studied law at Aleppo University and actively participated in the foundation of Aleph magazine with a group of writers and poets. A few months later, the magazine was closed down by Syrian censorship. Active on the arts scene in Damascus where he lives, Khalifa has written four novels and also writes screenplays for television and cinema. His most recent novel, No Knives in this City’s Kitchens, won the 2013 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.