Alawiya Sobh

Alawiya Sobh (Arabic: علوية صبح) (born 1955) is a Lebanese writer and author.^[1]

Alawiya Sobh
Born	Alawiya Sobh 1955 (age 69–70) Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation	Writer and novelist
Nationality	Lebanese
Education	English & Arabic Literature
Alma mater	Lebanese University

Biography

Born in Beirut, Sobh studied English & Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University.^[2] Upon graduation in 1978, she pursued a career in teaching. She also began publishing articles and short stories, at first in An-Nida newspaper and then in An-Nahar. After a spell as cultural editor, she became editor-in-chief of Al-Hasnaa, a popular Arabic women's magazine, in 1986. In the early 1990s, she became editor-in-chief of women's magazine Snob Al-Hasnaa’.^[3] In 2009, Sobh served on the judging panel of the Beirut39 competition.^[4]

Sobh is now dedicating her time only to writing.

Works

Short Stories

• Slumber of Days (1986)

Novels (All novels were published originally at Dar Al Adab in their native Arabic language)

• 2002 - Maryam Al-Hakaya (Maryam: Keeper of the Stories)
• 2006 - Dunya (Life)
• 2009 - Ismuhu Al-Gharam (It's Called Passion)
• 2020 - An Taashak Al-Hayat (To Love Life)

Translations

• Maryam Al-Hayaka was translated into English by Seagull Books,^[5] into French by Gallimard^[6] and into German by Suhrkamp.^[7]
• Dunya was translated into Italian by Mondadori.^[8]
• Ismuhu Al-Gharam was translated into Italian by Mondadori^[9] and into Romanian by Polirom.^[10]

Reception of work

Sobh's work has been critically acclaimed and is the subject of numerous doctoral works and literary studies.^[11][12] For her literary accomplishments and innovative writing, Sobh received the Sultan Qaboos prize in Oman in 2007.^[13] Her novels Dunya and Ismuhu Al-Gharam were long-listed for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2008^[14] and 2010,^[15] respectively. In 2016, an eponymous award dubbed the "Alawiya Sobh Literary critique Award" was launched at Abdelmalek Essaâdi University in Tétouan for participants whose critiques center around Sobh's work.^[16] Maryam: Keeper of Stories was short-listed in 2019 for the EBRD Literature Prize.^[17] Sobh's cumulative work then proceeded to earn her the Al Owais Award in 2019 for the category of "Stories: Novels and Drama".^[18] Most recently in 2021, An Taashak Al-Hayat made the three-book short-list in Sheikh Zayed Book Award's Literature section.^[19]