Kholoud Charaf (Syria)
(born 1981 in Al-Mujaymir, Syria) is a Syrian poet, writer, art critic, and human rights activist of Druze origin, focusing on issues concerning women and children. She studied medical technology and Arabic literature at the University of Damascus. She worked as the head of the medical unit in a women’s prison in As-Suwayda and as an English teacher at the Syrian Institute for Childhood Education, providing lessons to children deprived of formal education due to the ongoing war. She also took part in psychological support training organized by the Syrian Red Crescent.
In Syria she faced restrictions on freedom of expression and constant political pressure, which ultimately forced her into exile in 2018.
She has published four books in Arabic, and her works have been translated into more than ten languages. Her debut poetry collection Remnants of a Butterfly (2016) was praised for its original poetic language and imagery, transforming the experience of war into imaginative worlds inspired by childhood memories. In 2019, her bilingual poetry collection Reversed Sky / Odwrócone niebo was published in Poland by Znak. Her travel memoir Return to the Mountains won the Ibn Battuta Prize for Travel Literature (2019). Her latest novel Diaries I Have Nothing to Do With was nominated for the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arabic Booker) and will soon be published in German by Lübbe Verlag.
Charaf has held residencies and fellowships with ICORN (Poland), German PEN, IIE (USA), and IG Writers-in-Exile (2023). She has also worked with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków and participated in interdisciplinary projects combining language, music, and painting to address violence and foster empathy toward the Other. She currently continues her literary and artistic work in Warsaw and Graz.
