Hosheng Ossi, a Syrian Kurdish writer and novelist believes that the Composite Identity for a writer is a wonderful thing that enables him to have deeper vision and analytical point of view. Due to hardships in his homeland, he migrated from his homeland to Belgium searching for better life; his career path has totally changed and blossomed. He writes in Arabic and Kurdish languages and has a variety of poems besides his effective role in cultural forums in many countries. Here are the excerpts of SEE’s interview with “Ossi” about his recent writings after getting the Belgian nationality.
Q. Does your status as a Kurdi Syrian immigrant affect your profession as a writer?
Continuous changes are the logic of life and I can see that changing life styles allow people to be more open minded and creative. My existence in Europe has completely changed my personality, ideologies, thoughts and I can feel the difference in my writings. For me, it is such a great thing for a writer to live in different countries and witness several cultures; as this helps him lot with his work.
Q. What about your recent novel entitled “Open illusions party” that merged 3 stories together?
This novel’s story revolves around the disappearance of a famous Belgian writer and poet called “Jan de Schipper” under mysterious circumstances. Before the writer’s disappearance, he left a message stating that he is going to burn all his writings and paintings.
Actually, he vanished before he was able to burn anything and his case turned out to be a big national case.
Finally, the investigator Van Martin decided to read the writer’s novels and poems in order to help him with his case.
Q. Why did you use poetry in this novel?
this was done intentionally to ensure that poetry’s era hasn’t finished yet and it is still an effective writing element. Moreover, using poems is perfect in this novel that focuses on so many issues like love, belonging, hope, despair, revolutions and disappointments.
Q. To whom did you dedicate this novel?
I dedicated this novel to the Syrian-Kurdish Child Allan Abdullah who drowned in the Aegean Sea on 2/9/2015 and all other victims world-wide.
Q. What about “The burden of certainty” novel that won the 2017 Arabic Katara award?
I wrote the burden of certainty in 6 months and it was all about real stories and incidents acted by fake people. In this novel, I was affected by my new life in Belgium and it was aiming at discrediting the historical events that was narrated by formal novels. The novel won the Katara Award in 2017 after it was published at the end of 2016 and I dedicated this novel to Ostend city where I have been living for years in Belgium.
Q. What did you notice in your visit to Egypt, especially the huge cultural forum “the Book Fair”?
I wrote 3 essays in love of Egypt, and the book fair in its latest edition is considered a great incident especially amid the current Egyptian problems at the political and economic levels.
Contributed by Salma Yassin
