Fouad EL-Auwad was born in Damascus in 1965 and has lived in Germany since 1986. Alongside his activities as poet, mystic, storyteller and translator, he studied Architecture in Aachen, where he also graduated. Poetry and music have always been intertwined for EL-Auwad. In 1987 he founded the group »Kan yama
born in 1979 in Damascus, Syria, where he studied business economics at the University of Damascus. He is an author, poet, songwriter and journalist, and is the cultural and online editor at »Abwab«. The opera »Kalila Wa Dimna«, for which he wrote the libretto, was performed at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
is a Syrian freelance journalist who has been living in Berlin since 2013. Her texts have appeared in »ZON«, among others. For Deutschlandfunk Kultur, she produced the podcast series »Syrmania«, which discusses the lives of Syrians newly arrived in Germany in Arabic and German. She also works as a curator
Dima Wannous was born in 1982 in Damascus and is the daughter of the political playwright Saadallah Wannous. She studied French literature in Damascus and at the Sorbonne in Paris and translation in Lyon. Later, she lived in Beirut and worked for various print, online, and radio media outlets, included
born in Damascus in 1966, studied and taught at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus. Since 1995, he has worked as a director and scriptwriter, including at the Al-Kabbani Theatre in Damascus. Aita has received awards for his many books and plays. Still to be published, among other
Bachar Zarkan, Syrian composer and singer, performs his compositions based on Sufi and modern poetical texts. His musical approach, intimately rooted in Arabic musical tradition, is consciously and overtly modern. He has been on many tours in France, Germany, Britain , the USA, and most Arab countries. He has worked
born in 1987 in Damascus, studied visual communication, and has exhibited his installations, illustrations and video projects in Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and France since 2008. He has lived in Berlin for one and a half years, and will continue his studies at the Berlin Weissensee School of Art in
After receiving an undergraduate degree at Damascus University, he was imprisoned for six months for his membership in the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party. He and his wife subsequently chose to flee Syria for Lebanon, where in 1957 he, Yūsuf al-Khāl and other renowned authors began publishing the avant-garde literary journal,
Guest at the ilb 2002 Adel Karasholi was born in 1936 in Damascus, Syria. He published his first poems at the age of fifteen. The youngest member of the Arab Writers Union, he left his home country when the organisation was banned in 1959. In 1961 he came to Leipzig,
Abed Ismael was born in 1963 in Latakia, a port on the Syrian Mediterranean coast where he spent his childhood and youth, before completing his high school education in Damascus. He studied English language and literature at the university in Damascus. In 1990 he went to the USA to continue
Aboud Saeed was born in 1983 in Syria and grew up in Manbij, a small town situated on the Turkish border and near Aleppo. Instead of attending senior level at high school to gain his university entry qualifications for one of Syria’s four universities, Saeed decided to first work as
