Zakaria Tamer

Zakaria Tamer (Arabic: زكريا تامر‎), also transliterated Zakariya Tamir (strict transliteration Zakariyyā Tāmir), (born January 2, 1931 in Damascus, Syria) is an influential master of the Arabic-language short story.

He is one of the most important and widely read and translated short story writers in the Arab world, as well as being the foremost author of children’s stories in Arabic. He also writes children's stories and works as a freelance journalist, writing satirical columns in newspapers.

His volumes of short stories, are often reminiscent of folktales, and are renowned for their relative simplicity on the one hand and the complexity of their many potential references on the other. They often have a sharp edge and are often a surrealistic protest against political or social oppression and exploitation. Most of Zakaria Tamer’s stories deal with people’s inhumanity to each other, the oppression of the poor by the rich and of the weak by the strong. The political and social problems of his own country, Syria, and of the Arab world, are reflected in the stories and sketches in the satirical style typical of his writing.

His first stories were published in 1957. Since then he has published eleven collections of short stories, two collections of satirical articles and numerous children’s books. His works have been translated into many languages, with two collections in English, Tigers on the Tenth Day (translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, Quartet 1985) and Breaking Knees, published June 2008.

In 2009 he won the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary prize.