Raja Alem

Raja Alem is a Saudi novelist born in Mecca in 1956. She studied English literature at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, began writing on Al-Riyadh newspaper's "Letters and Ideas" page, and works as a tutor at the Center for Training Kindergarten Teachers in Jeddah. ¹ Her novels document the Meccan and Hejazi environment in a symbolic narrative mode with Sufi and Gnostic colouring. ² Her novel The Dove's Necklace (Tawq al-Hamam) shared the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction with Mohammed Achaari; her other works include Khatam and the short-story collection Nahr al-Hayawan (The Animal River, 1994). ¹

Alem was born in Mecca; the English article's lead and the Arabic article give her birth year as 1956, while the English article's infobox gives 1970, a year Wikidata also carries as a second value, so her data record follows the article texts and marks the year debated. ^{1 3} She received her BA in English literature in 1980 and writes prose in a style critics describe as a blend of the modern with traditional themes, unique among Saudi authors. ² The sources name no religion for Alem; the Sufi and Gnostic character of her fiction is a narrative mode, not an attestation of personal affiliation, so the museum records none. ^{1 3}

Alem has published several plays, three novels and a collection of short stories, Nahr al-Hayawan (1994). ¹ Her fiction is credited with documenting the Meccan and Hejazi environment, and her novel Tawq al-Hamam (The Dove's Necklace) won the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction jointly with Mohammed Achaari's The Arch and the Butterfly. ² Her short story "One Thousand Braids and a Governess" appeared in English in the anthology Voices of Change: Short Stories by Saudi Arabian Women Writers, and parts of her work have been translated into English and Spanish. ¹

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