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Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Zaid Dammaj

Gregory Johnsen

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One of the things I regret here at Waq al-waq is how little time we spend writing about anything besides what is going wrong in Yemen – really what I’m saying is that there isn’t enough of the real waq al-waq or dhu al-fiqar in our posts.

But in an effort to alleviate the unbalanced focus we have on politics here at Waq al-waq here is a link to a story on one of Yemen’s greatest 20th century authors, Zaid Dammaj, whose novel “The Hostage” has been translated into English. I can’t say he is my favorite Yemeni author of the 20th century, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Wali still reigns supreme in my heart, but he is good and essential reading for those seeking to understand Yemen at a deeper level than consulting reports and news articles.

There is also a new website devoted to him, which is available here.

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