Samir Kacimi was born in Algiers, Algeria, in 1974. After graduating in law and being admitted to the bar, he turned to literature. Apart from working as a columnist for the arts sections of various Algerian newspapers, having started in1993, he also initiated a literary page in the cultural newspaper »Echourouk«, and was the first to translate the poems of the Algerian poets and writers Mohamed Dib, Malek Haddad, and Nadia Guendouze, among others.
Samir Kacimi began his literary career as a poet, and is the author of a number of novels in Arabic. In 2008 he published his first novel »Declaration of lostness«, the first Algerian novel to focus on prisons in Algeria. It is written in the form a diary by a schizophrenic who goes to a police station to report that his library card has been lost, only to discover that there is a warrant out for his arrest. He eventually lands in one of Algeria’s most notorious prisons. The novel won the Hashemi Saidani Award for Best Algerian Debut novel. In 2009 his second novel »A great day to die« became the first Algerian novel to be long-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. In 2010, his third novel »Halabil«, and chapters from his next novel, »In love with a barren woman« were published in English in »Banipal Magazine«. »The dreamer«, his fifth novel, hinges on the question of whether one should do everything, sacrifice everything for one’s dreams.
Apart from being a freelance writer, Kacimi also regularly organizes literary events in cooperation with the Algerian Ministry of Culture. He still lives in Algiers.