humanities La Charité-sur-Loire

Souhaib Ayoub/

Writer

Souhaib Ayoub

2017

Souhaib Ayoub is a Lebanese writer and journalist who has sought refuge in France. He writes novels that explore issues such as homosexuality in the Middle East, exile, and pain.

Souhaib Ayoub was born in Lebanon in 1989. As a writer and journalist, he has written articles for a website publishing Arabic texts on homosexuality and eroticism. He was forced to flee to France due to the rise of extremism in his country.


In France, he began writing a novel. He is interested in minorities and social change. His novel tells the story of a Lebanese character born in 1964, who is homosexual, half Jewish, half Muslim, married, and the father of three children. It depicts the evolution of Lebanese society and the impact of rising extremism on the life of his character. It evokes pain, the weight of religion, and machismo.
During his residency at the Prieuré de La Charité-sur-Loire – Cité du Mot in July and August 2017, he found the calm he needed to write; he drew creative energy from the experience and was able to forge many friendships. After his summer residency, he was approached by several publishing houses interested in publishing his work. At the beginning of 2018, he spent two more months in residence at the Priory, from January to February. There he developed a new project, a graphic novel about the journey of a homosexual Syrian exile.