Salim Jay

Salim Jay (born 30 June 1951) is a Franco-Moroccan novelist, essayist and literary critic living in France. He has written about 20 books, numerous essays and more than thousand newspaper articles.

His "Dictionnaire des Écrivains marocains", published in 2005 by "éditions EDDIF (Maroc)" and "Paris-Méditérannée (France)" is a biographical dictionary of Moroccan writers who have expressed themselves in French language. The book has established itself already as a standard reference tool.

He was born on 30 June 1951 in Paris from a Moroccan father and Romanian mother. Salim Jay lived in Rabat from 1957 to 1973. His father was a poet who wrote in classical Arabic and was a friend of late king Mohammed V to whom Jay devoted the novel "Portrait du Géniteur en Poète Officiel" (Denoel, 1985). When Salim Jay was fourteen he made his first steps in journalism. He wrote an article for l'Opinion, the newspaper of the nationalist and royalist Istiqlal Party. In 1973 he heeded warnings and went into exile in France. He would not return for 29 years. He kept contact with his native country through the writings of other Moroccans. Salim Jay has a column in "Qantara", the magazine of the prestigious 'Institut du Monde Arabe' in Paris.

Besides articles on the literature of Morocco, Jay has written on French writers like Michel Tournier, Henri Thomas and Jean Freustié. His own favorite is "101 Maliens nous manquent", 1987, ed. Arcantère.