The wanderings of a gay Moroccan: An interview with Abdellah Taïa

Abstract

Abdellah Taïa is the first Moroccan writer to assume his homosexuality publicly. Born in Rabat in 1973, he spent his childhood and early youth in the small coastal Moroccan town of Salé, which features in many of his works. He has lived in France since around the turn of the 21st century, where he has written two books of short fiction and six novels in French. His autofictional novels Salvation Army and An Arab Melancholia were published by American publisher Semiotext(e) in 2009 and 2012; the same publishing house has recently combined Mon Maroc (My Morocco) and Le rouge du tarbouche (The red of the fez) into a single volume, entitled Another Morocco: Selected Stories, in 2017. His fictional novel Le jour du roi (The day of the king) was awarded the Prix de Flore in 2010, and his novel Infidels was published by New York publisher Seven Stories in 2016. His latest novels are Un pays pour mourir (A country to die in; 2016) and Celui qui est digne d’être aimé (He who is worthy to be loved; 2017). Taïa has also written and directed a film, Salvation Army (2013), inspired by his early life in Morocco and his migration to Switzerland. Taïa explores issues of non-normative sexuality, gender, class and postcolonialism, and his is one of the most important current voices in the francophone Arab world.