Golan Haji جولان حاجي

Golan Haji is a Syrian poet and translator with a postgraduate degree in pathology. He was born in 1977 in Amouda, a Kurdish town in the north of Syria. He studied medicine at the University of Damascus. He has worked as a translator from English and American literature, and has translated into Arabic the Scottish classic Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.

His first collection of poetry in Arabic, Called in Darkness (2004) won him the Al-Maghut prize in poetry. His second book of poetry, Someone Sees You as a Monster (2008) was published during the event celebrating Damascus as the Capital of culture in 2008. He lived in Damascus until he had to flee his country, and has now settled in France.