Jamal Naji ( ar, جمال ناجي), (1 November 1954 – 6 May 2018) was a

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian author of

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

origins. He was born in 1954 in the

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

of Aqbat Jaber in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. He moved to

in 1967, when he was in his early teens. Naji began writing in his early twenties, and published his first novel ''The Road to Balharith'' in 1981–82. Since then he had written several more novels as well as short story collections and television scripts. His recent novel ''When the Wolves Grow Old'' was shortlisted for the

Arabic Booker Prize The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) ( ar, الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic ...

in 2010. He was the president of the Jordanian Writers Association from 2001 to 2003. He lived and worked in

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

References

1954 births 2018 deaths People from Amman Jordanian writers Palestinian novelists Palestinian emigrants to Jordan {{Jordan-bio-stub