Rabih Alameddine

Who is Rabih Alameddine?

Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He was born in Amman, Jordan to Lebanese Druze parents. He grew up in Kuwait and Lebanon, which he left at age 17 to live first in England and then in California. A lover of mathematics, he earned a degree in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Master of Business in San Francisco. He began his career as an engineer, then moved to writing and painting. He is the author of three novels—Koolaids, I, the Divine and The Hakawati—as well as The Perv, a collection of short stories, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. The Hakawati is the result of eight years of intensive work, has received critical acclaim and has been translated into ten languages. He lives in San Francisco and Beirut.