Basem Al-Nabriss is ICORN's new guest writer in Barcelona

The Secretary General of PEN Catalan, Raffaela Salierno, center, as well as former ICORN Guest Writer Salem Zenia, at right, were at the airport to welcome him.

Basem Al-Nabriss is a widely-published Palestinian writer. He has released eight books both from within and outside Palestine, including several collections of poetry. Al-Nabriss has also written extensively on political, cultural and philosophical issues and is seen as a leading intellectual in his home country. His articles have appeared in a wide range of newspapers, but for the last few years he has written exclusively for the online Arab newspaper, Elaph. From 1994-2007, Al-Nabriss worked as Director General at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, but was dismissed from his job when Hamas took control in 2007.

Al-Nabriss is an outspoken voice in opposition to the ruling Hamas Party in Gaza. He advocates non-violent ways of dealing with the Palestinian problem and after the de-facto civil war in Gaza, he has been unemployed. In June 2007, Al-Nabriss' house was bombed while he and his family were at home. He reported the attack to the local police authorities, but no progress was made in the case. Al-Nabriss believes this is due to the attackers being associated with Hamas and that the attack was meant to silence him.

The Network looks forward to working with Basem and we hope that he will have an enjoyable and productive placement in Barcelona.