Khalid Lyamlahy completed a PhD in Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford (St Anne’s College). His dissertation, entitled “From Revolt to Nostalgia: Rethinking the Moroccan Postcolonial Malaise with Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine, Abdelkébir Khatibi, and Abdellatif Laâbi”, analyzes the expression of revolt and nostalgia in relation to individual and collective malaise in Morocco through the works of three contemporary Moroccan Francophone authors.
Lyamlahy was born in Rabat, Morocco, and worked as an engineer and a project manager in Paris and London. He holds a Master’s degree in engineering from Ecole des Mines d’Alès (2008) in southern France, a BA in French and Modern Languages (2012) and an MA in Comparative Literature (2014), both from Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle. In the period 2016-2018, Lyamlahy served as the Book Reviews Editor for the Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies, and as the editor of the ‘Francophone African Literature’ section of The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies. His research interests include North African studies, Francophone fiction and poetry, literary theory, and translation. In addition to his academic work, he is a regular contributor to literary magazines and platforms including En Attendant Nadeau, World Literature Today, Non-Fiction.fr, Africa at LSE, and Zone Critique. His first novel, Un Roman Étranger, was published in January 2017 in Paris by Présence Africaine Editions.
Lyamlahy recently wrote the preface to the complete poetic work of Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi, republished in a special Moroccan edition by Editions du Sirocco in Casablanca, and is co-editing a book about Moroccan writer Abdelkébir Khatibi, forthcoming with Liverpool University Press. Besides revising his thesis into a monograph, Lyamlahy is working on a new research project that problematizes the notions of selfhood and otherness in post-2011 Francophone North African literature and aims to bring a critical perspective to aesthetic, political, and linguistic practices in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.