AUTOBIOGRAPHY


Here we go...

Since I created this section in 2005, the autobiography project hasn´t make significant progress although I haven´t seized to write autobiographical pieces and diaries elsewhere (notebooks, blog, Iraq Forum...)

More that ten years have passed since I started to think about writing my autobiography. It is now time to give it a fresh and serious start. And that is what will happen from now on.
I have checked my notebooks, paper files, my website and my computer and found a considerable amount of content related to my autobiography waiting to be refreshed, rewritten, improved and put in shape, i.e. made into a book.

What has been missing so far is continuity, clear goal and a deadline.

Deadline: December 31, 2009

A word about content and style:

This autobiography will be a hybrid of diaries, portraits of people and places, reminiscences, comments, notes, precis, records of projects, ideas, plans, compositions on diverse themes, etc. It will not be a relato (story of a life) told in conventional style and genre, but rather a show of life as it is, and my life within it, with all its diversity, energy, shades, hues and nuances. Instead of a pure lineal approach and reporting, there will be a mixture of lineality and hypertextuality.
    
Anwar Al-Ghassani                           Thursday, November 29, 2007


Curriculum Vitae
Bio Note , Oct. 19, 2006 - Eng.
Lebenslauf, Feb 27, 2002 - Ger. CV corto, Jan 1, 2005 - Sp.
List of Publications (German)
Curriculum Vitae
Oct. 19, 2006- Spanish
 
My Albums
Mini - Bio, Apr 2, 2005
Web Presence
FAQ - My Life And Work
Beyond The Self

Years of A Life

Prologue  | 1937  | 1938 | 1939* | 1940 |
1941* | 1942 | 1943   | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947*| 1948 | 1949 | 1950 |
1951 | 1952 | 1953   | 1954 | 1955*| 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 |

1961 | 1962 | 1963   | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 |
1971 | 1972 | 1973   | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 |
1981 | 1982 | 1983   | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 |

1991 | 1992 | 1993   | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
2001 | 2002 | 2003   | 2004 | 2005 | Epilogue | Miscellaneous Texts
..........  |


About My Autobiography
How to access the content- Click on a year to go to the corresponding page. As to texts in Arabic, if you are not using an Arabic browser or Arabic Windows, you may need to go to the "View/Coding" section of your browser. Select Arabic (Windows). This should enable you to read the text.
Since I am not writing chronologically but rather at random, not all years have content, not yet. An (*) indicates that the year has content. Thus you don´t need to guess or try in vain. Please visit this site frequently to read new additions to the autobio.

Approach and Structure - This is not a register of all my life events. I am following a selective approach. I am writing only about people, places and events of importance for my life. People who have influenced my life are at the core of the autobio. At times, I am presenting some people in seperate portraits embedded in the general text.
The autobiography (autobio) is structured according to the years. Each year is a section (one page or more). Furthermore, the autobio includes a prologue, an epilogue and miscellaneous texts which I will incorporate in the final version.
I am also adding photos if they have some illustrative value.

Future Structure - I will modify the current structure later after I finish writing the autobio.

Text Quality - This is not the final version. I may describe the text as "clean draft", that still needs a lot of work.

Languages - The texts are either in Arabic or English. I write in the language I happen to be thinking in at the moment of writing. I will have to makte some cross translation in the future to prepare for publishing.

History - After several failed, discontinued and abandoned attempts at writing my autobio in the course of the past three decades, Now I am writing it and wouldn´t abandon it.

Thanks for your patience and interest.

Anwar Al-Ghassani                          Comments


Corollary To My Autobiography

Portraits of People And Places

I am trying to write these portraits in an unconventional way. Autobiographies don´t lend themselves well for such a purpose. Therefore, I am writing them not as part of the autobiography but parallel to it. I might later incorporate them in the autobiography, but they should be written in a way that makes them self-sufficient to stand alone as independent works.
Unconventional portrait writing? What do I mean by that?

Staright-forward writing, non-chronological, without research, just directly from my memory.
The list below includes only few people and places. Over time, I will complete the list. For me, just creating this list is an achievement. I feel joy at seeing the names of these wonderful people. I imagine how exiting and rewarding would it be when I achieve writing about each one of them and the many others who are not yet on this list.
This is not a list of all my friends, family members, people I came to know at some period of my life or of all places I have been to. That would be a huge list. This is a list of people and places that have influenced me in one way or another, who were kind and generous to me, people of great character, talent, wisdom and moral integrity.


1939 - Qal´at Salih - Um Itlayat
1941 - Qal´at Salih - Moonlight, Bombs And Palm Trees
1947 - Kifri, The Clarinet Player
1950 - Kirkuk - Sitt Adawiya
1955 - Tuz Khourmatu - Abdulla
 
 
 
 
 

Portraits waiting to be written

Munira Sayyed Tahir (my mother) Sonia Brie (my great teacher, colleague and friend)
Mahmoud Sami Beq Jarjis (my father) Mouayad Shukri Ar-Rawi (poet and painter)
Badria Sayyed Tahir (my aunt) Wadood Al-Sheikhli
Ahmad Sayyed Tahir (my uncle) Sit Adawiya (teacher, colleague of my aunt)
Hadia Majid (my maternal grandmother) Zainab Sadik (Egyptian writer and journalist)
Jarjis Beq Al Ahmad Pasha (my paternal grandfather) Abdulwahab Al-Amin (writer, journalist and translator)
Shiett Saleh (my secondary school social science teacher) Cathrine Shamoun (teacher and colleague, Kirkuk, Iraq)
Ali Hussein Al-Bayati (my secondary school Arabic teacher) Irene Duchrow
Shahir As-Shawi Lidia Vladimirova Tasseva
Mufid Awchi Frau Heiduzchek (my German language teacher)
Dennis (graphic designer, Baghdad, Iraq) Suad Al-Hurmuzi
Yahya Jawad (graphic designer, writer, Baghdad, Iraq) Kahtan Najati Al-Hurmuzi
Fadhil Al-Azzawi (poet, novelist and journalist) Sargon Baulus (poet)
Shimran Al-Yassiri (Abu Khateh) (Novelist and journalist) Professor Dr. Safa´ Al-Hafidh (writer, politician and university professor)
Ibrahim Zair (writer, graphic designer, journalist) Muhayyadin El-Labbad (Graphic designer and writer)
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