How well do you know Tayseer Al-Sboul

Tayseer Al-Sboul: Celebrated Jordanian Writer and Poet

• Tayseer Al-Sboul was born in Tafila, Jordan to a middle-class family on January 15, 1939.
• He was a distinguished student and attended middle school in Zarqa, Jordan, seeking better education opportunities.
• Al-Sboul is considered one of the greatest Arab literary reformers, having written some of the most creative and sophisticated works in modern Arabic literature.
• His masterpiece, You as of Today, won the al-Nahar Award for best Arabic novel in 1968 and is a distinguished feature of Jordanian literature.
• You as of Today was written after the Arab defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War and tells the story of a young Arab man struggling with failed relationships, dysfunctional family, and corrupt political leadership.
• Red Indian is one of Al-Sboul's short stories that takes place in the westernized parts of Beirut during the mid-1960s and early 1970s, following a young Jordanian man's journey toward independence and self-discovery away from his patriarchal and stubborn father.
• The Rooster's Cry is another short story about a prisoner's encounter with the outside world during the evening and the day after his release, finding solace in his friend's wife.
• Al-Sboul committed suicide on November 15, 1973, feeling increasingly sorrowful about the lack of hope for positive change in the Arab world.
• The Jordanian Writers Society was established after his death, an idea brought up in Al-Sboul's writings.
• The Society holds an annual literary award in his honor, and numerous Jordanian universities' literary conferences are held in his name.
• Al-Sboul's work is a powerful historical narrative that tells of the struggles, dreams, and aspirations of a young nation during some of its most defining periods.
• His writing style was postmodernist and developed away from traditional forms of the Arabic novel, bringing attention to Jordanian writers in the Arab world.