His name is Mokhtar Liamini and he is 41 years old. originally from Algiers, he has lived in Canada since he was 22 years old. Mokhtar Liamini is announced among the five finalists of the Prix de la Nouvelle Radio-Canada 2021.
The title of the short story, presented in this competition by the Algerian national, is the song of the elegant goldfinch. the prizes for this competition, offered by the Canada Council for the arts, total $ 60,000.
the Prix de la Nouvelle de Radio-Canada is one of three radio-Canada literary prize competitions that have existed for more than 30 years. these competitions are the only ones to reward original and unpublished works in the two official languages in Canada, namely French and English.
Books as an escape
at the age of 22, Mokhtar Liamini left Algiers to settle in Sherbrooke, Canada, to continue his studies in mechanical engineering. The 2021 news finalist then chose the city of Montreal, to settle there.
Following the announcement of the names of the finalists for this award, Mokhtar Liamini was surprised. “It’s a big surprise for me to be a finalist because it’s one of the first short stories I wrote and also the first that I have read”, he declared. Indeed, the Algerian national confided that he began to write on a regular basis during confinement.
Mokhtar Liamini, however, was fortunate to be surrounded by books throughout his life. friends of his parents who lived in France sent new books to Mokhtar and his family by post, at a time when it was difficult to get hold of them in Algeria.
“With the civil war in the 90s, books offered me real escape routes from a rather gloomy daily life. I could spend hours reading, locked in my room ”, confided again Liamini Mokhtar who took part, let us recall it, in the contest of the new Radio-Canada with his book entitled song of the elegant goldfinch.
