19 Facts About Elias Khoury

Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist and public intellectual.

From 1993 to 2009, Khoury served as an editor of Al-Mulhaq, the weekly cultural supplement of the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Nahar.

Elias Khoury taught at universities in Middle Eastern and European countries, and the United States.

Elias Khoury was born in 1948 into a middle-class Greek Orthodox family in the predominantly Christian Ashrafiyye district of Beirut.

Elias Khoury began reading Lebanese novelist Jurji Zaydan's works at the age of eight, which he later said taught him more about Islam and his Arabic background.

Later, Elias Khoury grew interested in classical Arabic literature, Russian novels by Pushkin and Chekhov, and modernist literature.

Elias Khoury studied history at the Lebanese University and graduated in 1971.

At the start of the Lebanese civil war, Elias Khoury became a member of the Lebanese National Movement, an alliance of leftist, pan-Arab parties with mostly Muslim supporters.

Elias Khoury was injured during the war, and temporarily blinded.

Elias Khoury published his first novel in 1975, On the Relations of the Circle.

Elias Khoury described the use of torture in the Lebanese judicial system.

Elias Khoury's novels are notable for their complex approach to political themes and fundamental questions of human behavior.

From 1975 to 1979, Elias Khoury was editor of Shu'un Filastinia, collaborating with Mahmoud Darwish.

Between 1980 and 1985, Elias Khoury worked as an editor of the series Thakirat Al-Shu'ub, published by the Arab Research Foundation in Beirut.

Elias Khoury worked as the technical director of Beirut Theater from 1992 to 1998, and was a co-director of the Ayloul Festival of Modern Arts.

In 1993, Elias Khoury became the editor of Al-Mulhaq, the cultural supplement of the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Nahar.

Elias Khoury's works have been translated and published in Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Elias Khoury has taught at many universities, including New York University, University of Houston, Berkeley College, The University of Chicago, Columbia University, Georgetown University, the University of Minnesota, and Princeton University in the United States.

Elias Khoury taught at the University of Poitiers in France, the University of London in the UK, the University of Berlin in Germany, and the University of Zurich in Switzerland.