Salim Barakat (Arabic: سليم بركات) (b. Qamishli, 1951) is a Syrian writer of Kurdish origins. He was brought up in Qamishli in northern Syria and spent most of his adult life there. In 1970 he moved to Damascus to study Arabic Literature but after one year he moved to Beirut where he stayed until 1982. While in Beirut he published five volumes of poetry, two novels, a diary and two volumes of autobiography. He moved to Cyprus and worked as a managing editor of the prestigious Palestinian journal Al-Karmel, whose editor was Mahmoud Darwish. In 1999 he moved to Sweden, where he still resides.^[1]

His works explore his own Kurdish culture and chronicle their plight and history,^[2] as well as the Arabic, Assyrian, Armenian, Circassian and Yazidi cultures.^[1] His earliest work, Al-Jundub al-Hadidi ("The Iron Grasshopper"), is an autobiographical narration of his childhood in Qamishli. The book explores the violent and raw conditions of his early adolescent life, suffused nostalgic feelings for the Kurdish land and culture. The first part of the book's length subtitle translates to, "The unfinished memoir of a child who never saw anything but a fugitive land."^[3]

Barakat is considered one of the most innovative poets and novelists writing in the Arabic language.^[2] Stefan G. Meyer described his style as "the closest by any Arab writer's to that of Latin American magical realism." His complex style and application of techniques taken from classical Arabic literature, his influence has been almost one of a "neoclassicist."^[3]

Template:Persondata