Abbas El-Zein

Abbas El-Zein
Native name ﻋﺒﺎﺲ اﻟﺰﻳﻦ
Born Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation Writer and Academic
Language English
Nationality Australian/Lebanese
Education American University of Beirut (BE), University of Southampton (MSc, PhD), Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (DEA)
Notable awards New South Wales Premier Literary Award - Community Relations Commission Award

Abbas El-Zein (Arabic: ﻋﺒﺎﺲ اﻟﺰﻳﻦ ; born 1963) is an Australian-Lebanese writer and academic. He is the author of two acclaimed works of fiction – a novel, Tell the Running Water[1][2] and a collection of short stories, The Secret Maker of the World[3][4][5] – as well as an award-winning memoir, Leave to Remain, about growing up in civil-war Lebanon and migrating to Europe and Australia.[6][7] He has published essays and articles on war, displacement and environmental decline. His work has appeared in the New York Times[8] the Guardian[9] the Age,[10] the Sydney Morning Herald,[11] as well as literary magazines Meanjin, Heat and Overland.[12] His work is a manifestation of a growing number of Anglo-Arab and Franco-Arab writers, emerging in the 2000s, especially authors from a Lebanese background writing in English or French, post Lebanese civil war, such as Rabih Alameddine, Nada Awar Jarrar, Wajdi Mouawad and Rawi Hage, in whose work themes of violence, loss, memory and identity are prominent.[7][13][14] He has made numerous media appearances.[15][16][17] As a scholar, he has authored and co-authored a number of scientific papers on environmental sustainability, climate change, development and poverty.[18] His more recent work has focused on the environmental, economic and human cost of high levels of militarisation in the Arab world.[19] He has lectured at the American University of Beirut and the University of New South Wales. He is currently associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of Sydney.[20]

Background

Abbas El-Zein was born and grew up in Beirut. He was twelve years of age when the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975. He was educated at the bilingual French-Arabic school, Mission Laique Francaise.[21] After graduating with a degree in civil engineering from the American University of Beirut in 1986, he left for the UK where he acquired Master's and PhD degrees in computational mechanics and mathematical modelling from the University of Southampton, and later, a Master's by research degree in environmental science from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. He lived and worked in the UK and France for a number of years before moving to Australia in 1995. He started writing his first novel while living in the UK.[22] In 1993, he participated in a writing workshop/retreat run by Beryl Bainbridge and Bernice Rubens at the Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre, Wales. Later, he published a number of essays in Meanjin and Heat and completed his first novel in 1998. In 2005, he won an Australia Council for the Arts grant for new work, which led to the writing of his memoir Leave to Remain in 2009.[23]

Awards and honours

Books

References

  1. ↑ Felicity Bloch, The Search for Redemption and Resolution: Review of Tell the Running Water, The Saturday Age, 18 August 2001.
  2. ↑ Tony Maniati, When Worlds Collide for Tension's Sake, The Weekend Australian, 21 July 2001.
  3. ↑ Messer, David (April 19, 2014). "A new kind of tradition sharpened by precision". smh.com.au. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Cahill, Michael (September 23, 2015). "Intimate Perspectives". sydneyreviewofbooks.com. Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  5. ↑ Lindsay, Portia (March 25, 2014). "Harsh edges of an unyielding world". theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  6. ↑ Borghini, Jose (April 11, 2009). "Leave to Remain: A Memoir". theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  7. 1 2 Saadi Nikro. 2010. Memory in a Paratactic Register: Abbas El-Zein’s Leave to Remain: A Memoir. Southerly, Vol. 70, No. 1.
  8. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (July 27, 2006). "The Tribes of War". nytimes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  9. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (December 6, 2013). "As engineers, we must consider the ethical implications of our work". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  10. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (August 21, 2006). "Evoking a past conflagration is not helping". theage.com.au. The Age — Independent. Always. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  11. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (July 22, 2015). "Iran deal fails to address rampant Arab militarisation". smh.com.au. The Sydney Morning Herals. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  12. ↑ Meanjin 58. 1999.
  13. ↑ p49 of Leila Al Maleh. 2007. Anglophone Arab Literature: An Overview in Arab Voices in Diaspora: Critical Perspectives on Anglophone Arab Literature, edited by Leila Al Maleh, Cross/Cultures, Amsterdam, ISBN 9789042027183.
  14. ↑ Mornings with Deborah Cameron and Geordie Williamson, 12 March 2009 (ABC 702).
  15. ↑ On Beirut with Abbas El-Zein and Rabih Alameddine, by Caroline Baum, May 2014 (Booktopia TV).
  16. ↑ Books and Arts Daily with Anita Barraud and Michael Cathcart, 1 May 2014 (ABC Radio National).
  17. ↑ Mornings with Margaret Throsby, 11 March 2009 (ABC Radio National). Retrieved July 24, 2015
  18. ↑ "Abbas El-Zein – Google Scholars". scholar.com.au. Google. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  19. ↑ El-Zein, Jabbour, Tekce, Zurayk, Nuwayhid, Khawaja, Tell, Al Mooji, De Jong, Yassin, Hogan (2014). Health and ecological sustainability in the Arab world: a matter of survival. 9915 383. The Lancet. pp. 458–476.
  20. ↑ "Associate Professor Abbas El-Zein". sydney.au.edu. The University of Sydney. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  21. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (2009). Leave To Remain: A Memoir. Queensland: The University Of Queensland Press. p. 11. ISBN 978 0 7022 3692 1.
  22. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (2009). Leave To Remain: A Memoir. Queensland: The University Of Queensland Press. pp. 123–132. ISBN 978 0 7022 3692 1.
  23. ↑ "Authors – Abbas El-Zein". uqp.uq.edu.au. The University Of Queensland Press. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Abbas El-Zein". newcastlewritersfestival.org.au. Newcastle Writers Festival. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  25. ↑ "About the Awards". NSW Premier's Literary Awards. 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  26. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (2001). Tell the running water. Sydney: The University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0733613195.
  27. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (2009). Leave To Remain: A Memoir. Queensland: The University Of Queensland Press. ISBN 978 0 7022 3692 1.
  28. ↑ El-Zein, Abbas (2014). The Secret Maker of the World. Queensland: The University Of Queensland. ISBN 978 0 7022 5007 1.

External links

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