By Fire: Writings on the Arab Spring

Tahar Ben Jelloun: The Storyteller

Tahar Ben Jelloun is perhaps the contemporary Moroc-can author best known in the United States, and he is one of the most translated, read, and studied Maghrebi writers in Europe. Shortlisted twice for the Nobel Prize in literature, Ben Jelloun is the recipient of many international literary awards including the Le Prix Goncourt in 1987 and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2005. In his more than thirty-five works — which include novels, poetry collections, short-story collections, plays, many works of nonfiction, essays, meditations on current events, and documentary writings — he confronts and denounces corruption, exploitation, racial and gender discrimination, violence, and dictatorship. His interests stem from his youth in Morocco, where in 1966 he was sent to a military camp as a result of his participation in a rebellion against the repressive and violent acts of the Moroccan police. It is at the camp that he started writing. His work is also informed by his education in psychology and experience as a psychotherapist.

Ben Jelloun was born to a family of modest means. Perhaps because he participated in the rebellion against the violent acts of the Moroccan police and was sent to a military camp as his punishment, he is in a position to understand the suffering of North Africans living difficult lives in what continues to be a difficult political environment with a high unemployment rate. Ben Jelloun is in a position to understand what Mohamed Bouazizi may have suffered under dictatorship.