Syrian-Swedish journalist and writer, Khaled Alesmael graduated in English Literature in 2006 at Damascus University. He is the winer of the Swedish Radio Short Story Prize 2020. His journalism has been highly awarded for his coverage of topics of culture, climate, and migration. His debut novel Selamlik was translated into Swedish and published in 2018 with the publishing house Leopard and in German by Albino House.Selamlik has been widely acclaimed as a powerful account of an emergent Arab queer identity, in a society claiming freedom. The Swedish media reviewed it as the first story of Syria at war through a homoerotic perspective.
The Swedish author Jonas Gardell reviewed Khaled’s writing as it reminded him of Jean Genet’s. Expressen Dec 2018.
Khaled received an award for his short Coffee with Sukkar at Gothenburg Film Festival in 2019.
