Tahar Ben Jelloun

Tahar Ben Jelloun
Tahar Ben Jelloun (2013)
Native name	الطاهر بن جلون
Born	(1944-12-01) 1 December 1944 (age 72) Fes, French protectorate in Morocco
Occupation	Novelist, poet
Language	French
Nationality	Moroccan
Alma mater	Mohammed V University
Period	1973–present
Notable works	The Sand Child This Blinding Absence of Light
Notable awards	Grand Officer, Legion of Honour (2008) Prix Goncourt (1987) Prix Ulysse (2005)
Website
taharbenjelloun.org

Tahar Ben Jelloun (Arabic: الطاهر بن جلون‎‎; born in Fes, French protectorate in Morocco, 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer. The entirety of his work is written in French, although his first language is Arabic. He became known for his 1985 novel L’Enfant de Sable (The Sand Child). Today he lives in Paris and continues to write. He has been short-listed for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in Morocco in December 1944. As a child, he attended an Arabic-French bilingual elementary school. He then studied in the Lycée Regnault in Tangier, Morocco, until he was 18 years old. He studied philosophy at Mohammed V University in Rabat.

After having been a philosophy professor in Morocco, he joined the group who ran the literary magazine Souffles in the mid-1960s. He wrote many pieces for the cultural magazine. He later participated in the student rebellion against “the repressive and violent acts” of the Moroccan police. In 1966, he was then forced into military camp as his punishment.

Five years later, his first collection of poems were published in Hommes sous linceul de silence (1971). Shortly thereafter he moved to Paris, France, and in 1972 began writing for Le Monde. He received his doctorate in social psychiatry in 1975.

Ben Jelloun's 1985 novel L’Enfant de Sable (translated as The Sand Child) brought widespread attention. In 1987 he received the Prix Goncourt for his novel La Nuit Sacrée (The Sacred Night), making him the first Maghreb author to receive the award.