Jonathan Wright is a British journalist and literary translator.

Biography

Wright was born in

Andover, Hampshire Andover ( ) is a town in the English county of Hampshire. The town is on the River Anton, a major tributary of the Test, and is situated alongside the major A303 trunk road at the eastern end of Salisbury Plain, west of the town of Basi ...

, and spent his childhood in Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Germany. He attended Packwood Haugh School from 1966 to 1967 and

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

from 1967 to 1971. He studied Arabic, Turkish and Islamic civilisation at St John's College, Oxford. He joined

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

news agency in 1980 as a correspondent, and has been based in the Middle East for most of the last three decades. He has served as Reuters'

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

bureau chief, and he has lived and worked throughout the region, including in Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Tunisia and the Persian Gulf region. From 1997 to 2003, he was based in Washington, DC, covering US foreign policy for Reuters. For two years until the fall of 2011 Wright was editor of the ''Arab Media & Society Journal'', published by the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at the American University in Cairo.

Translations

Kidnapping and Escape

On 29 August 1984, while on a reporting assignment for Reuters in the

Bekaa Valley The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most importan ...

, Lebanon, Wright was detained and held hostage by the Palestinian splinter group led by

Abu Nidal Sabri Khalil al-Banna (May 1937 – 16 August 2002), known by his '' nom de guerre'' Abu Nidal, was the founder of Fatah: The Revolutionary Council, a militant Palestinian splinter group more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization ...

in a part of the

Lebanon hostage crisis The Lebanon hostage crisis was the kidnapping in Lebanon of 104 foreign hostages between 1982 and 1992, when the Lebanese Civil War was at its height. The hostages were mostly Americans and Western Europeans, but 21 national origins were represen ...

. The group wanted to exchange him for members imprisoned in Britain for shooting the Israeli ambassador,

Shlomo Argov Shlomo Argov ( he, שלמה ארגוב; 14 December 1929 – 23 February 2003) was an Israeli diplomat. He was the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom whose attempted assassination led to the 1982 Lebanon War. Early life and education Arg ...

, in London in June 1982. Wright spent about one week in a small room in a country house near the town of Barr Elias and was then moved to a large villa near the Chouf mountain town of

Bhamdoun Bhamdoun ( ar, بحمدون), is a town in Lebanon from Beirut on the main road that leads to Damascus and in the suburbs of the main tourist city of Aley, lying at an altitude of above the Lamartine valley. Two separate villages compose the to ...

, above Beirut. In the early hours of 16 September 1984, Wright escaped from captivity by removing the plank of wood covering a ventilation hole and crawling through the hole, which was about 10 feet above floor level. He reached the hole by dismantling his metal bedstead and using the frame as a ladder. Once outside, he walked along the Beirut-Damascus highway until he reached a checkpoint manned by the mainly Druze Muslim

Progressive Socialist Party The Progressive Socialist Party ( ar, الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي, translit=al-Hizb al-Taqadummi al-Ishtiraki) is a Lebanese political party. Its confessional base is in the Druze sect and its regional base is in Mount Lebanon ...

. The party militia held him incommunicado at

Aley Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a major city in Lebanon. It is the capital of the Aley District and fourth largest city in Lebanon. The city is located on Mount Lebanon, 15 km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nick ...

police station until 19 September, when party leader

Walid Jumblatt Walid Kamal Jumblatt ( ar, وليد جنبلاط; born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese Druze politician and former militia commander who has been leading the Progressive Socialist Party since 1977. While leading the Lebanese National Resistance ...

told his aides to drive him to the Reuters office in Beirut.

Awards and honours

*2013

Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation The Banipal Prize, whose full name is the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, is an annual prize awarded to a translator (or translators) for the published English translation of a full-length literary work in the Arab ...

for the translation of ''Azazeel'' by

Youssef Ziedan Youssef Ziedan ( ar, يوسف زيدان) (born June 30, 1958) is an Egyptian writer and scholar who specializes in Arabic and Islamic studies. He is a public lecturer, columnist, and prolific author of more than 50 books. He is also director ...

*2014

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The ''Independent'' Foreign Fiction Prize (1990–2015) was a British literary award. It was inaugurated by British newspaper ''The Independent'' to honour contemporary fiction in translation in the United Kingdom. The award was first launched i ...

for the translation of ''The Iraqi Christ'' by Hassan Blassim *2016

for his translation of ''The Bamboo Stalk'' by

Saud Alsanousi Saud Alsanousi ( ar, سعود السنعوسي, born 27 May 1981) is a Kuwaiti novelist and journalist. His debut novel ''The Prisoner of Mirrors'' (2010) won the Leila Othman Prize. In 2011, his short story ''The Bonsai and the Old Man'' won a c ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Jonathan 1980s missing person cases Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Arabic–English translators British escapees British people taken hostage English male journalists English male non-fiction writers Formerly missing people Foreign hostages in Lebanon Kidnapped British people Kidnappings by Islamists Living people Missing person cases in Lebanon People educated at Shrewsbury School Year of birth missing (living people)

Biography

Translations

Kidnapping and Escape

See also

Awards and honours

References