Antoon was born in 1967 in
Baghdad. He received his B.A. in English with distinction from the
University of Baghdad in 1990 with minors in Arabic and Translation. He left Iraq in 1991 after the onset of the
Gulf War and moved to the United States. He completed an M.A. in Arab Studies from
Georgetown University in 1995.[2] In 2006, he received his Ph.D. from
Harvard University in Arabic and Islamic Studies.[3] His doctoral dissertation was the first study on the 10th century poet,
Ibn al-Hajjaj and the genre of poetry he pioneered (sukhf).
"He was one of a coterie of dissident diasporic Iraqi intellectuals who opposed the 2003 US occupation of his homeland that led to the current post-colonial quagmire."[4] Antoon was featured in the 2003 documentary film About Baghdad, which he also co-directed and co-produced.
His poems and novels have been translated to nine languages. He is also a co-founder and co-editor of the e-zine Jadaliyya.[9]
Literary works
Poetry
Antoon has published two collections of poetry in Arabic: Laylun Wahidun fi Kull al-Mudun (One Night in All Cities) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2010) and Kama fi al-Sama (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2020). He has published two collections in English;The Baghdad Blues (Harbor Mountain Press, 2006) and Postcards from the Underworld (Seagull Books, 2023).
Novels
Antoon has published five novels:
I`jaam (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 2002 and later al-Jamal, 2014) was widely acclaimed in the Arab world and described as "the Iraqi novel par excellence." It was translated to English by Rebecca Johnson and the author as I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody and published by CityLights Books in 2006. Other translations include German (Irakische Rhapsodie (Lenos), Norwegian, Italian, and Portuguese.
'Wahdaha Shajarat al-Rumman (The Pomegranate Alone) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2010) was translated by the author and published by Yale University Press in 2013 as The Corpse Washer and was longlisted for the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction. It won the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Literary Translation. The Argentinian writer Alberto Manguel described as "one of the most extraordinary novels he's read in a long time." The
French translation (Seul le Grenadier) was published by Actes Sud in 2017 and won the 2017 Prix de la Littérature Arabe for the best Arabic novel translated to French in 2017. Its translation in Malayalam language in the title Vellaputhappikkunnavar was done by Dr. Shamnad N, Head of the department, University College, Trivandrum, Kerala.
Ya Maryam (Ave Maria) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2012) was shortlisted for the
International Prize for Arabic Fiction (The Arabic Booker) and was translated to Spanish by María Luz Comendador and published by Turner Libros in May 2014 under the title Fragmentos de Bagdad. The English translation (by Maia Tabet) was published in 2017 as
The Baghdad Eucharist by Hoopoe Books (AUC Press).
Fihris (Index) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2016). Was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. It was translated by Jonathan Wright into English and published by Yale University Press in 2020 as The Book of Collateral Damage.
Khuzama (Lavender) (Beirut: Dar al-Jamal, 2023). A novel about two Iraqi refugees living in the United States. One fled dictatorship in the 1990s and the other fled the post-2003 sectarian ethnic cleansing.
Honors and awards
2017
Prix de la Litterature Arabe for "Seul le Grenadier" (Actes Sud, 2017, tr. Leila Mansur) (Wahdaha Shajarat al-Rumman/The Corpse Washer).