Abdellah Taïa
Writing in French about family, desire and exile, he became one of the first Moroccan writers to speak publicly about being gay.
Abdellah Taïa was born in Rabat in 1973. He grew up in a poor family in nearby Salé, sharing a small home with his parents and siblings. He studied French literature in Rabat and Geneva before moving to Paris in the late 1990s.
Writing in French, Taïa draws on childhood memories, family loyalties, desire and the experience of leaving Morocco. His books often return to people whose lives are shaped by poverty and by the expectations placed on them by family and society.
In January 2006, he spoke openly about being gay in the Moroccan magazine TelQuel. He later recalled the fear that followed seeing his words in print, and the difficult conversations with his mother. Widely described as Morocco's first openly gay writer, he made his personal life part of a public debate about who could speak and belong.
His novels include “L'Armée du salut” (Salvation Army, 2006) and “Le Jour du Roi”, which won the Prix de Flore in 2010. He adapted “Salvation Army” for his first feature film, shown at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.
Taïa's work keeps his family and the neighbourhood of his childhood close, even when its characters travel far from home. The tensions between affection, shame, anger and freedom give his stories their force.