ANTOON Sinan
Country: Iraq
Year of Birth: 1967
Biography
Sinan Antoon (Baghdad, 1967) is a poet, novelist, and translator. He left Iraq in 1991 after the Gulf War. He got his PhD from Harvard in 2006, and is currently associate professor of Arabic literature at NYU, New York where he now lives. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the e-zine Jadaliyya, which is published in Arabic and English.
The pomegranate alone was awarded “Le prix de la littérature arabe”, for the Best Arabic book translated into French.
Titles
Of loss and lavender | Khuzama (2023)
Index | Fihris (2015)
Ave Maria | Ya maryam (2012)
The pomegranate alone | Wahdaha shajarat al rumman (2010)
I’jam: An Iraqi rhapsody | I’jam (2004)
The Bagdad blues
In the press
“Of loss and Lavender”
“Poignant dreamscape” — Times Literary Supplement
“Ravishing, heartbreaking, and often absurd, … a novel on exile in all its meanings, panoramic in implications but distilled down like a fine elixir. I adored it” — Molly Crabapple
“Sinan Antoon leads a hallucinatory investigation into the territories of memory and tragedies of Iraq.
A deep reflection on exile and the power of books” — Mathias Enard
“Language is a flexible tool in [Antoon’s] hands… This is a beautifully-crafted text… sometimes even poetic.” — Addyar
“From one of Iraq’s finest writers, a tender, audacious novel that traces the long afterlife of war and the quiet, reparative power of listening.”– Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
“The pomegranate alone”
“Superb” — L’Express, 2017
“One of the most extraordinary novels that I’ve read” — Alberto Manguel, 2013
“A compact masterpiece, a taut, powerful and utterly absorbing tale” — The National, 2013
“Sinan Antoon’s The Corpse Washer [ The pomegranate alone ] offers a moving literary elegy… It must be read.” — The Kenyon review, 2013
“A stark portrait of contemporary Iraq.”– NPR, 2014
“Powerful”— Warscapes, 2013
“Remarkable novel that in 184 pages captures the experience of an Iraqi everyman” — Three percent, 2013
“Ave Maria”
“Visceral yet poetic” — World literature today, 2016
“A novel of rare brilliance — The National, 2017
“A star of modern Arabic fiction” — The Christian Century, 2017
Cessions
Of loss and lavender (2023)
Actes Sud (2025, France)
Green Books (2025 Malayalam, India)
Other Press (2026, USA, WEL)
Saqi Books (2026, UK)
Index (2015)
University Press (2019, USA)
Green books (2019, Malayalam / India)
Hopefulmonster (2023, Italy)
Ave Maria (2012)
Hoopoe, AUC (2017, under the title “The Bagdad Eucharist”, World English / Egypt)
Sindbad, Actes Sud (2018, France)
Laguna, (2020, Serbia)
Ugla Publishing (2023, Iceland)
The Pomegranate Alone (2010)
Aylak Adam (2018, Turkey)
Prozart (2018, Macedonia)
Kastaniotis (2019, Greece)
Petrine Knige (2022, Croatia)
I’jam: An Iraqi Rhapsody
City lights book (2006, USA)
Feltrineli (Italy)
Globo (Brazil)
The Baghdad blues
Harbor Mountain Press (USA)
[Updated September 2026]
Author's Works
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