A Moroccan author writing in French, Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in 1944 in Fez and immigrated to France in 1961. He has published numerous novels, collections of poetry, and essays. He won the Prix Goncourt in 1987 for his novel La Nuit Sacree and received the Prix Maghreb in 1994. More recently, his widely acclaimed novel, This Blinding Absence of Light (in its English translation by Linda Coverdale), won the International Impac Dublin Literary Award in 2004.