Shukri Mabkhout


Shukri Mabkhout, also transcribed Choukri Mabkhout, is a Tunisian academic, critic and novelist.

Biography

He was born in Tunis, and obtained a PhD in literature from the Arts College of Manouba. He has written several works of literary criticism and sits on the board of several literary journals.
Professor at the University of Tunis, he was Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Arts and Humanities of La Manouba before becoming president of Manouba University.
Director of the 33rd and the 34rd edition of the Tunis International Book Fair, he is also a member of the editorial board of several refereed journals, including Ibla magazine and Romano Arabica.
In 2016, he was appointed by the President of the Republic of Tunisia as a member of the Higher Committee for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
Shukri Mabkhout was propelled onto the international scene by his first novel Etalyenni, published in 2014. The plot follows a man, Abdel Nasser who inexplicably attacks an imam during his father's funeral. The events of the novel unfold in Tunisia during the tumultuous late 1980s and early 1990s, and examine the political clashes between leftists and Islamists and the forces that brought Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to power. The novel won the prestigious International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which was awarded in Abu Dhabi despite the book being banned in the Emirates.

Honours and awards