|
Iraqi-born Israeli writer gets Kurdish
kudos in Kurdistan
29.11.2009
|
|
|
|
November 29, 2009
ERBIL-Hewlęr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Sami Michael has won an
unexpected honor from a region of the world close to
his place of birth. While the 83-year-old
Baghdad-born author was at this year's Frankfurt
International Book Fair he learned that a synopsis
of his latest book, Aida, has been released in
Kurdistan, part of which is located in northern
Iraq. One of the main characters in Aida is, in
fact,www.ekurd.neta
Kurdish woman who becomes involved with a well
respected elderly Jewish resident of Baghdad towards
the end of the Saddam regime. The full book is also
due to be published in Kurdish and Arabic.
Considering Michael's background, the cultural mix
of the main characters in Aida is not surprising.
Michael grew up and was educated in a mixed Baghdad
neighborhood of Jews, Muslims and Christians. |
Sami Michael |
At 15 he joined the
Communist underground in Iraq and at 17 he began to
write for clandestine Communist newspapers. When he
was 21 a warrant was issued for his arrest and he
fled to Iran, where he continued his communist
activities. Michael made aliya in 1949 and settled
in Haifa. He is a longtime president of the
Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Meanwhile, it was announced that one of Michael's
earlier books, A Trumpet in the Wadi, which came out
in Hebrew in 1987 and in English in 2003, is due to
be published in Mandarin Chinese, as is his 1993
novel Victoria. Michael's first novel All Men Are
Equal, which came out in Hebrew in 1974, will be
released in German in the near future and his 1975
children's book Storm Among the Palms is now
available in Italian.
Sami Michael
Sami Michael was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1926. At
age 15, he joined a leftist underground movement
acting against the regime in Iraq. In 1948, his
activities were discovered and he fled to Iran,
making his way to Israel a year later. After working
for four years as an editor at Arabic-language
dailies, he studied hydrology at the British
Institute and joined the Israel Hydrology Authority
where he worked for 25 years. During this time, he
also studied psychology and Arabic literature at
Haifa University. Michael has published six novels,www.ekurd.netfour
books for youth, and three non-fiction books and a
number of plays. He has received many literary
awards, including the WIZO Prize (Paris), the ACUM
Prize, the Brenner Prize, the Ze`ev Prize for
children`s literature, an IBBY Award (Berlin), the
Israeli Literature Prize, the President`s Prize
(2005) and the Emet Prize (Israel, 2007). For his
work for peace, he has been honored by the
UN-supported Society for International Development,
and the Association for Promotion of Peace in the
Middle East (Italy). He has also been awarded
honorary doctorates by the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem (1995), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
(2000) and Tel Aviv University (2002) for his
literary work and contribution to inter-communal
reconciliation. Since 2001, Michael has been the
president of the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Jpost com | Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
®