Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Ali Fathallah Hassan Al-Khalili was born in the Al-Qasaba neighborhood of Nablus in 1943. He is married and has two children. He completed his primary and secondary education in Nablus schools, graduating from Al-Salahiya School in Nablus in 1962. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Faculty of Commerce at Beirut Arab University in 1966. He worked as a teacher in West Bank schools between 1967 and 1969, then moved to work in Saudi Arabia until 1969, and later in Libya until 1977. He worked as a writer for the Jerusalem-based Al-Fajr newspaper in 1977 and served as editor-in-chief of several newspapers and magazines, including Al-Fajr, Al-Fajr Al-Adabi, Balqis, and The Jerusalem Times. He opened a bookstore in Nablus and was appointed Assistant Undersecretary in the Palestinian Ministry of Culture until 2005. He contributed to the founding of the Palestinian Union of Writers and Authors and the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.
He was a prominent figure in the fields of literature, culture, and journalism in numerous locations both within Palestine and abroad. He wrote journalistic articles on literature, politics, and culture for various newspapers and magazines, including a weekly column in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam. Al-Khalili published approximately forty books encompassing poetry, novels, and literary studies. His poetry collections include: Topography of Memory (1973), The Dialectic of the Homeland (1974), Nablus Marches to the Sea (1976), Formation of the Rose (1977), Laughter from the Cairns of Ugliness (1978), Spreading at the Camp's Gate (1978), The Dream Remains a Dangerous Attempt (1980), You Alone, Then the Garden Crowds (1981), We, O Master (1984), Glory be to You, Glory be to Me, From Your Clay, My Flood (1990), Sacrifices, My Brothers (1996), Give Me the Eye of Contentment, Give Me the Eye of Discontent (1996), Autumn of Attributes (2001), A Losing Trick (2007), and Balconies of Speech (2010).
His books include: Palestinian Heritage and Social Classes (1972), Children's Songs in Palestine (1977), Work and Workers' Songs in Palestine (1977), The Ghoul: An Introduction to Arab Myth (1980), The Palestinian Hero in Folk Tales (1979), The Arab Joke (1981), The Ghoul (1982), Conditions and Phenomena in the Literature of the Occupied Territories (1984), Writing with Bound Fingers (1981), The Intifada and the Local Press (1989), Journalism and Democracy (co-authored, 1990), Palestinian Journalism Under Occupation (co-authored, 1991), Children's Culture Under Occupation (1994), Mirrors of Irony (1995), The Ambiguous Text: In Cultural and Political Discourse (1997), Heirs and Narrators: From the Nakba to the State (2001), Selections from Palestinian Poetry (2002), and The Handkerchief Humans: On the Rhetoric of Victims and the Eloquence of the Oppressed (2004), Stories Over a Century/The Ramifications of Tragedy and the Struggles of Narrative (2008), and Readings in New Palestinian Literature (Joint, 2008).
His publications in the field of novels and short stories include: The Keys Turn in the Locks (1977), A Light in the Long Tunnel (1979), Aish Tilni Lah Al-Rusuk (1978), The Music of Loaves (1998), The House of Fire “An Autobiography” (1998), and Maps and Horses (1998).
Al-Khalili received a number of awards and honorary gifts, including: being chosen as the Cultural Personality of the Year in Palestine for 2011, and receiving the Palestinian Medal of Merit and Excellence in 2011.
Al-Khalili suffered under the occupation; he was arrested for several months, banned from traveling for several years, and summoned for interrogation more than once. He contracted cancer in his later years and died in Ramallah on October 2, 2013.
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