Marrakech Noir

About the Contributors

Halima Zine El Abidine was born in Marrakech in 1954 and has published five novels: Obsession of the Return (1999), Citadels of Silence (2005), On the Wall (2012), The Dream Is Mine (2013), and It Wasn’t a Desert (2017). She has also written three plays: Who Is in Charge (1987), The History of Women (2003), and Hnia (2004).

Mohamed Achaari was born in 1951 in Moulay Driss Zerhoun. He has published a collection of short stories, eleven poetry books, and three novels. After being jailed for his political activities, he went on to serve in a variety of government posts, including as Minister of Culture between 1998–2007. He has twice been elected president of the Union of Moroccan Writers, serving from 1989–1996. He was the joint winner of the 2011 Arabic Booker Prize for his second novel, The Arch and the Butterfly.

Taha Adnan grew up in Marrakech and has lived in Brussels since 1996. He works at the Ministry for Francophone Education. A poet and writer, he directed the Brussels Arabic Literary Salon in Belgium. His poetry collections and plays have been translated into French, Spanish, and Italian, and published internationally. Two anthologies he edited, Brussels the Moroccan (2015) and This Is Not a Suitcase (2017), were published in French in Casablanca.

Yassin Adnan was born in 1970 in Safi and grew up in Marrakech, where he still lives. He is best known today for his weekly cultural program Macharif on Moroccan television. He has published ten works — including four books of poetry, three short story collections, and two books about Marrakech: Marrakech: Open Secrets and Marrakech: Vanishing Places. His novel Hot Maroc, which also takes place in Marrakech, was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Lahcen Bakour was born in Mtougga in the countryside near Marrakech in 1977. He works as a civil servant, and is a short story writer and novelist. He has published three works: a collection of short stories, Man of Chairs, in 2008, and the novels Isthmus (2012) and The Last Dance (2017). He has received two literary prizes in Dubai and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Abdelkader Benali is a Moroccan-Dutch writer who was born in 1975 in Morocco and moved to Rotterdam when he was four years old. Benali published his first novel, Wedding by the Sea, in 1996; it received the Geertjan Lubberhuizen Prize. For his second novel, The Long-Awaited (2002), Benali was awarded the Libris Literature Prize. He has since published the novels Let Tomorrow Be Fine (2005) and Feldman and I (2006).

Mahi Binebine was born in 1959 in Marrakech and moved to Paris in 1980 to continue his studies in mathematics, which he later taught for eight years. He then devoted himself to writing and painting. His novels, which have been translated into a dozen languages, include Le Sommeil de l’esclave, Les Funérailles du lait, L’Ombre du poète, Welcome to Paradise, Pollens, Terre d’ombre brûlée, Le Griot de Marrakech, and Horses of God. His paintings are a part of the permanent collection at the Guggenheim Museum.

Allal Bourqia was born in Tangier in 1963 and lives in Brussels. His first novel, Pure Eternity, was published by Dar Elain in Cairo in 2010. His second novel, Death of the Flamenco Dancer, will be released soon with the same publisher. He contributed to Brussels the Moroccan (2015) and This Is Not a Suitcase (2017), two anthologies that were published in French in Casablanca.

Hanane Derkaoui was born in 1971 and has degrees in the history of philosophy and philosophy. She taught philosophy in Marrakech, and she currently lives in the south of France. She has published several novels and collections of short stories, including White Birds, A Girl from Rabat, A Bad Life, and The Beautiful Ladies’ Bridge.

Fouad Laroui was born in Oujda in 1958. An engineer and economist, he now teaches French literature in Amsterdam. He is the author of ten novels, including Les Tribulations du dernier Sijilmassi, which was awarded the 2014 Prix Jean Giono. He has also published several collections of short stories, including L’Étrange affaire du pantalon de Dassoukine, which won the Prix Goncourt in 2013. Laroui received the Great Medal of the Francophonie of the Académie française in 2014.

Fatiha Morchid is a poet and novelist. She is a pediatrician by profession and presented a health care education program on the Moroccan TV channel 2M, along with a poetry show on the same station. She has published eight books of poetry. The latest is Unspoken, which received the Morocco Poetry Prize. Her novels include Just a Few Moments, Fun’s Claws, The Muses, The Right to Leave, and, most recently, The Twins. As Love Is Not Enough is her first collection of short stories.

Karima Nadir was born in Marrakech in 1987 and began writing poetry at the age of fourteen. She studied French literature at Hassan II University and translates poetry in addition to writing her own. She works as a freelance journalist. For the last two years, she has lived between Tunis and Casablanca, working as a consultant for international NGOs and projects to fund development and democracy-building.

Mohamed Nedali was born in Tahannaout, near Marrakech, in 1962. He was educated in Marrakech and at Nancy 2 University in France. From 1985 to 2016, he taught high school French before devoting himself to writing. The author of seven novels, his debut, Morceaux de choix: les amours d’un apprenti boucher, won the 2005 Grand Atlas Prize, and in 2009 the International Prize of the Novel of Diversity at the Festival of Cartagena in Spain. In 2012, his novel Triste jeunesse won the Mamounia Literary Prize.

My Seddik Rabbaj was born in Marrakech in 1967; he still lives there and teaches French at a high school. Rabbaj writes in French and has published his novels in Paris, including: Inch’Allah (2006), L’École des sables (2008), Le lutteur, (2015), and Nos parents nous blessent avant de mourir (2018). His novel Siucidaire en sursis appeared in Morocco in 2013. Rabbaj’s forthcoming book is a collection of short stories about his neighborhood: Une Petite vie à Sidi Youssef Ben Ali.

Mohamed Zouhair was born in Marrakech in 1951. He teaches modern literature and is a member of the Union of Moroccan Writers. His stories and essays have been published both in Morocco and internationally. Zouhair is also a playwright and a theater critic. His plays include The Call, which was published in 2013. His collection of short stories, Voices That I Haven’t Heard, received the Morocco Fiction Prize in 2011.