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Palestinian writers rejoice as one of their own wins 'Arab Booker'

With his dystopian novel “The Second War of the Dog,” Ibrahim Nasrallah won the 2018 International Prize for Arab Fiction in yet another victory for Palestinian literature.
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — By winning the 2018 International Prize for Arab Fiction (IPAF) with his dystopian novel “The Second War of the Dog” on April 24, Palestinian author Ibrahim Nasrallah has reasserted the presence of the Palestinian novel in the Arab literary scene. Nasrallah and three other Palestinian writers had been nominated for the Arab world’s top literary award, demonstrating the variety of emerging fiction writers of Palestinian origin.

Nasrallah already enjoys literary fame at home and abroad. Several of his 13 novels — most of which are historical — have been translated to English and other languages. He has also published 14 collections of poetry and two children’s books. Born in 1954 in the Wihdat refugee camp in Jordan, he studied in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and worked as a journalist in the 1980s and 1990s. Nasrallah has also acted as director of cultural activities at Darat al Funun, which is a home for the arts and artists from the Arab world and is part of Amman's Khalid Shoman Foundation, of which Nasrallah is vice president.

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