Mazen Maarouf

Mazen Maarouf (b 1978, Lebanon) is a Palestinian writer whose short story collection Jokes for the Gunmen was longlisted for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize. He lives in Iceland.

He was born in Beirut to a Palestinian refugee family and worked as a teacher of chemistry and physcis before relocating to Iceland, where he is now the foremost translator of Icelandic literature into Arabic. 

His own writing includes three collections of poetry, beginning with Our Grief Resembles Bread in 2000. He has contributed articles to several Arabic magazines and newspapers and published his debut short story collection in 2015. 

His work has been translated into a dozen languages. Maarouf divides his time between Reykjavik and Beirut.