Abdulrazak Gurnah
b. 1948
Tanzanian-born British writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2021) (born 1948)
- Born
- 20 Dec 1948 · Zanzibar City
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 20 Dec 1948BornBorn in Zanzibar City
- 2006AwardFellow of the Royal Society of Literature
- 2016RoleBooker Prize judge
- 2021AwardNobel Prize in Literature
- 2024AwardHonorary doctorate
- 2025AwardHonorary doctorate of the University of Lleida
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1948 – today).
- 19501950 FIFA World Cup
- 1950 – 1953Korean War
- 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
- 19541954 FIFA World Cup
- 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
- 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
- 1956Suez Crisis
- 19581958 FIFA World Cup
- 1959Antarctic Treaty System
- 19621962 FIFA World Cup
- 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
- 19661966 FIFA World Cup
- 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
- 1968Prague Spring
- 1969Apollo 11 Moon landing
- 19721972 Summer Olympics
- 19741974 FIFA World Cup
- 19781978 FIFA World Cup
- 1978 – 1979Iranian Revolution
- 1979 – 1989Soviet–Afghan War
- 1980 – 1988Iran–Iraq War
- 19841984 Summer Olympics
- 1985Schengen Agreement
- 19891989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
- 1989Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 19901990 FIFA World Cup
- 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
- 19941994 FIFA World Cup
- 1994 – 1996First Chechen War
- 19981998 FIFA World Cup
- 2001 – 2021War in Afghanistan
- 2003 – 2011Iraq War
- 20042004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
- 20062006 FIFA World Cup
- 20082008 Summer Olympics
- 2008Russo-Georgian War
- 20102010 Haiti earthquake
- 2010 – 2012Arab Spring
- 20112011 Norway attacks
- 2011Libyan civil war
Biography
Abdulrazak Gurnah (born 20 December 1948) is a Tanzanian novelist and academic of Yemeni origin. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution. His novels include Paradise (1994), which was shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea (2001), which was longlisted for the Booker and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion (2005), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
In 2021, Gurnah was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fates of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents". On 1 September 2024, Gurnah took up the appointment of the Arts Professor of Literature at New York University Abu Dhabi. He is also Emeritus Professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent.
Text from the Wikipedia article Abdulrazak Gurnah, CC BY-SA 4.0
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