Luay Hamza Abbas is a noted Iraqi

Iraqi people

The Iraqi people or Mesopotamian people are natives or inhabitants of the country of Iraq, known since antiquity as Mesopotamia , with a large diaspora throughout the Arab World, Europe, the Americas, and...

 writer. He was born in Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

 and studied at Basra University, completing a PhD in 2002. He now teaches literary criticism

Literary criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...

 at Basra University. Abbas has published several volumes of short stories and one novel.

Abbas' short stories have been published in English translation by the literary magazine Banipal

Banipal

Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...

, which featured him in an issue devoted to contemporary Iraqi authors

Iraqi literature

Iraqi literature is, and has been, deeply marked by Iraq's political history.In the late 1970s, a period of economic upturn, prominent writers in Iraq were provided with an apartment and car by Saddam Hussein's government, and were guaranteed at least one publication per year. In exchange,...

. In 2010, the National Endowment of the Arts awarded a grant to academic and translator Yasmeen Hanoosh

Yasmeen Hanoosh

Yasmeen Hanoosh is an Iraqi academic and translator. She was born in Basra in 1978. She moved to the United States in 1995, subsequently obtaining a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Michigan. The title of her doctoral thesis, submitted in 2008, was "The Politics of Minority Chaldeans between...

 to translate Abbas' short story collection Closing His Eyes (2008). The title story of this volume was translated earlier in Banipal 27 and also won the 2006 Kikah Best Short Story Award in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.