yemenat
Yemenat
Mohammed Al Mekhlafi
I recently read an article by the Saudi writer and novelist Khaled Al Youssef, titled Fifty Years… O, Short Story! He posted it on his Facebook page a few days ago, and it was later republished by several local and Arab websites.
What emerged from the article was a remarkable literary journey, not simply because Al Youssef is a short story writer, novelist, and critic, but also because he has spent more than five decades following and documenting Saudi Arabia’s literary and cultural life.
What caught my attention most, however, was his long relationship with the short story. From the very beginning of his career, he remained deeply interested in the genre and in those who wrote it. He documented their work, helped publish it, and sought to introduce it to readers both inside and outside Saudi Arabia.
Al Youssef did not simply write short stories and leave them to their readers. Over the years, his engagement with the genre grew into something much broader. He began as a short story writer, then became increasingly involved in tracing its development, documenting its history, publishing works related to it, and taking part in activities and forums devoted to it. Through this sustained engagement, he has come to occupy a distinctive place in the history of the Saudi short story, particularly in following its writers and preserving their work.
When he wrote The Illusion of Rain in late 1977, at the age of nineteen, he did not know, as he says, that the story would call forth others like it or mark the beginning of such a long and branching journey. He probably could not have imagined then that his relationship with the short story would continue for so many years, or that it would grow from simply writing stories into supporting the genre, promoting its writers, and documenting their experiences.
After becoming president of the Saudi Short Story Club, he did not limit his work to organizing literary evenings, seminars, and competitions. He also devoted himself to gathering information about the Saudi short story and its writers, establishing connections with Saudi and Arab short story writers, and maintaining contact with short story clubs in several Arab countries.
He was also active in publishing and launched Al Wahat Al Shamsiyah. During that period, his efforts produced a considerable body of work, including more than thirty collections of short stories and novels, nine issues of the periodical, dozens of literary evenings, seminars, and meetings, as well as an information center devoted to Saudi short story writers.
Over the past five decades, Al Youssef has published more than fifteen books devoted to the Saudi and Arab short story, in addition to more than ten special publications on the Saudi short story. He has also organized and supported forums devoted to the genre and established the Virtual Saudi Short Story Club, a platform concerned with the Arabic short story and its writers.
Nor did his contribution end there. A number of researchers and scholars have benefited from his experience, and his name has been associated with dozens of university theses dealing with the Saudi short story. At different stages of their research, he has remained in contact with many of their authors and has accompanied them in their research journeys.
All of this leads me to see Khaled Al Youssef’s relationship with the short story as one of the earliest and most sustained literary experiences of its kind in the Arab world, one for which it would be difficult to find a true equivalent in terms of longevity and breadth. He did not content himself with writing short stories. He remained close to the genre and its writers, following what they produced, documenting their experiences, helping to publish their work, and introducing it to readers.
For this reason, I find myself inclined to regard Khaled Al Youssef as one of the most prominent Arab literary figures to have served the short story, not through writing alone, but also through sustained engagement, documentation, and publishing.
Perhaps this long-standing commitment to the short story is reason enough to ask a question: Could Al Youssef be regarded as one of the Arab writers who have devoted the greatest part of their literary lives to supporting, following, and documenting this genre over the course of five decades?
yemenat
مشاهدة khaled al youssef the arab world rsquo s foremost servant of the short story
يذكر بـأن الموضوع التابع لـ khaled al youssef the arab world s foremost servant of the short story قد تم نشرة ومتواجد على قد تم نشرة اليوم ( ) ومتواجد على موقع يمنات الأخباري ( اليمن ) وقد قام فريق التحرير في برس بي بالتاكد منه وربما تم التعديل علية وربما قد يكون تم نقله بالكامل اوالاقتباس منه ويمكنك قراءة ومتابعة مستجدادت هذا الخبر او الموضوع من مصدره الاساسي.
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