Khaled Khalifa (Arabic: خالد خليفة) is an award-winning Syrian novelist, screenwriter and poet, born 1964 in Aleppo. Some of his works which are critical of the Syrian government under Baathist rule have been banned by the Syrian government.He attended the University of Aleppo, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in law. He wrote poetry and was a member of the Literary Forum there. As a screenwriter, Khalifa has written several television dramas including Rainbow (Kaws Kozah) and Memoirs of Al-Jalali (Serat Al-Jalali), documentaries, short films, and the feature-length film The Shrine Door (Bab al-Maqam). His first novel, Haris al-Khadi'a ("The Guard of Deception"), was published in 1993. His second novel, Dafatir al-Qurbat ("The Gypsy Notebooks"), was suppressed by the Union of Arab Writers for four years after its publication in 2000. Wikipedia
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