Qusay al-Shaykh Askar

Qusay Abd al-Ra'uf Askar, commonly known as Qusay al-Shaykh Askar (قصي الشيخ عسكر;1951) is an Iraqi-Danish novelist, poet and literary scholar. His first poetry collection was published in 1983 and his first novel in 1985, since then he has created many fictional works.

Biography
Qusay Abd al-Ra'uf Askar was born in village of Nahr Jasim, Shatt Al-Arab District, east of Basra, Kingdom of Iraq in 1951. His family name derived from his grandfather first name, Askar, plus a title of honor, Sheikh, since he was the first imam of the Iraqi army at the beginning of its establishment in the 1920. He studied primary school in Shatt al-Arab and secondary school in al-Ashar, Basra. He received a BA in Arabic literature from Basra University, Department of Arabic Language, 1973–1984, and a MA in Arabic literature from Damascus University, 1984. Then he obtained PhD from the Islamic College, London, in 2004.

He taught in the secondary schools of Iraq, Morocco and Libya. Worked as a reporter for Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, then emigrated to Denmark from Ba'athist Iraq. He worked as a broadcaster and program presenter for the Danish television, the Arabic section. He taught English at Cambridge Institute in Copenhagen for five years, and Danish language in schools of Denmark for three years. He held Iraqi citizenship then became a naturalized citizen of Denmark, and settled in Hellerup, then moved to Nottingham, United Kingdom, late 2000s. In Denmark, Al-Shaykh Askar founded the Arab Writers Union of Scandinavia and was chosen to head the union.

Fiction
Iraqi academic and literary critic, Najm Kazim, in March 2017 published a list of the 100 best Iraqi novels of the twentieth century based on his “personal perception as a result of his long work in the field of literary criticism.” He placed three novels of Al-Shaykh Askar among them. Al-Shaykh Askar once stated that "In fact, what interests me without hesitation is Russian realism. Then I refrained from it and moved on to romanticism."

Works
Novels: Poetry collection: Other genres: Literary studies:
 * المعبر, 1985
 * سيرة رجل في التحولات الأولى, 1986
 * المكتب, 1989
 * شيء ما في المستنقع, 1991
 * للحمار ذيل واحد لاذيلان, 1992
 * الشمس تقتحم مدينة الثلوج, 1993
 * المختار, 1993
 * امرأة بستة أزواج - شهريار يهاجر للصمت المباح, 1995
 * التجربه؛ النفق؛ الموتى يزحفون, 1995
 * آخر رحلة للسندباد وروايات أخرى, 1995
 * ‏نهر جاسم, 2004
 * روايات وقصص من الخيال العلمي, 2010
 * وأقبل الخريف مبكراً هذا العام, 2011
 * من تنومتي يطلع القمر, 2013
 * المقصف الملكي, 2013
 * الحبل والنار التي تسري, 2013
 * الثامنة والنصف مساءً, 2014
 * رسالة, 2016
 * الرباط, 2017
 * قصة عائلة, 2018
 * ربيع التنومة, 2019
 * زيزفون البحر, 2019
 * علاء الدين, 2020
 * ‏أنا والشبيه, 2021
 * ‏كورونا, 2021
 * ‏النهر يلقي إليك بحجر, 2021
 * رؤية, 1983
 * صيف العطور الخرساء, 1985
 * عبير المرايا, 1985
 * رحلة الشمس والقمر, 2002
 * الديوان الرشيق, 2019
 * المعجزة, short story collection
 * البلاغة في تعاريف القدماء, 1988
 * الحسن بن وهب، حياته، مقالاته، رسائله، شعره, 1988
 * النجاشي، شاعر صفين, 1988
 * قيم جمالية في نهج البلاغة, 1988
 * مفاهيم اقتصادية في نهج البلاغة, 1988
 * التشبيه والاستعارة في نهج البلاغة, 1988
 * الأسلوب القصصي في نهج البلاغة, 1988
 * الاغتراب في نهج البلاغة, 1989
 * الأساطير العربية قبل الإسلام وعلاقتها بالديانات القديمة, 2007
 * معجم الأساطير والحكايات الخرافية الجاهلية, 2014