Kamel Riahi

Novelist, critic, broadcaster who produces and presents programmes for radio and television.
Initiated and founded Beit al-Riwaya (Centre for the Novel) and behind the Beit al‑Khayal (House of Fiction) salon and creative-writing lab.
Since the 1990s regular contributor to Arab and international cultural media.
Writes and presents programmes about the novel on Tunisian radio and television: Beit al-Khayal on El Watania 1, and Inhiyaz (Bias) on Radio Tunisie Culture.
Run a large number of workshops in creative, journalistic, and critical writing in Tunisia and the Arab world.
Contact: kamel.riahi@utoronto.ca

02-2005: Post Graduate Degree in Arabic Language and Literature - Faculty Of Letters, Arts and Humanities of La Manouba (Tunisia)
06-2011: Bachelor’s Degree in Arabic Language and Literature - University of Tunis (Higher Institute of Language)

2022 - 2023: Guest Lecturer, University of Toronto, Canada
2021 - 2022: Writer-in-Residence, Department of English Language and Literature, Carleton University, Canada
2010 - 2018: Ministry of Culture, Director of the Cultural Centers (Al Mohamadiah- ibn khaldoun),Tunisia
2018 - 2021: Ministry of Culture, Director and founder of the House of the Novel, City of Culture-Tunisia.
2017 - 2021: Presenter and Producer of “Inhiyaz” Radio program, Tunis Cultural Radio Station
2014 - 2021: Creative writing workshops trainer, House of fiction
2000 - 2021: Writer and Literary Critic, Aljazeera-Ultrasawt-rasseef22-TheNewYorkTimes, Doha magazine.
2015 - 2016: Presenter and Producer of House of Fiction “bayt al khayal”, TV program, Tunisian National Television/ al Wataniya 1
2009 - 2010 : Head of the translation department at the Arab Higher Institute for Translation in Algeria.
2005 - 2007: Temporary professor, Higher Institute of Languages in Tunisia.

Nawaris al-Dhakira (Seagulls of Memory) – short story collection, 1999.
Suriqa Wajhi (My Face Was Stolen) – short story collection, 2001.
Al-Mishrat (The Scalpel) – novel, winner of the Comar d’or prize 2006; 2nd edn, Dar al-Junoub, Tunis, 2007; 3rd edn, Dar al-Saqi, Beirut, 2012.
Al-Ghorila (Gorilla/One Night in Tunis) – novel, 2011.
‘Ashiqat al-Nadhl (The Rouge’s Lovers) – novel, Dar al-Saqi, 2015.
Wahid-Sifr lil-Qatil (One-Nil to the Dead Man) – diary, Mediterranean Publications, Milan, Italy, 2018.
Al-Beretta Yaksibu Da’iman (Beretta Always Wins), al-Mutawassit, Milano 2020.

Harakat al-Sard al-Riwa’i (The Movement of Fictional Narrative) – Dar Mijdalawi, Jordan, 2005.
Al-Kitaba al-Riwa’iya ‘ind Wacini Laraj (The Novels of Wacini Laraj) – Karim Sharif Publications, Tunis, 2009.
Thus Spoke Philippe Lejeune – Interview in the Hakadha Tahaddatha (Thus Spoke) series, 2010.
This Spoke Wacini Laraj – Interview in the Hakadha Tahaddatha (Thus Spoke) series, 2010.
Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid: Al-Tafkir fi Wajh al-Takfir (Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid: Thinking in the face of takfir) – Karim Sharif Publications, Tunis, 2014.
Fann al-Riwaya (The Art of the Novel) – Algeria Reads, 2018; 2nd edn, Sotumedias, Tunis, 2019.

Complete works and selections have been translated into French, Italian, English, Portuguese, Swedish, Spanish, Polish, Hebrew and Persian.

Ibn Battuta Prize for Memoir in 2018 for Wahid-Sifr lil-Qatil.
Academia Prize for best cultural programme on Tunisian television for House of Fiction, 2015
Hay Festival Prize for the 39 best Arab writers.
Comar d’or Prize for best Tunisian novel 2007 for Al-Mishrat.
Only Tunisian writer to be included in the Beirut 39, 2009.
Selected as one of the five best writers under forty for the IPAF, 2010.
Short Story Prize, Cairo, Diwan al-Arab, 2005.

Universal Navigation