Qusay al-Shaykh Askar

Iraqi academic and literary critic, Najm Kazim [ar], in March 2017 published a list of the 100 best Iraqi novels of the twentieth century based on his “personal perception as a result of his long work in the field of literary criticism.” He placed three novels of Al-Shaykh Askar among them. Al-Shaykh Askar once stated that "In fact, what interests me without hesitation is Russian realism. Then I refrained from it and moved on to romanticism."

He taught in the secondary schools of Iraq, Morocco and Libya. Worked as a reporter for Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, then emigrated to Denmark from Ba'athist Iraq. He worked as a broadcaster and program presenter for the Danish television, the Arabic section. He taught English at Cambridge Institute in Copenhagen for five years, and Danish language in schools of Denmark for three years. He held Iraqi citizenship then became a naturalized citizen of Denmark, and settled in Hellerup, then moved to Nottingham, United Kingdom, late 2000s. In Denmark, Al-Shaykh Askar founded the Arab Writers Union of Scandinavia and was chosen to head the union.

Qusay Abd al-Ra'uf Askar, commonly known as Qusay al-Shaykh Askar (Arabic: قصي الشيخ عسكر, romanized: Quṣayy al-Shaykh ʻAskar;1951) is an Iraqi-Danish novelist, poet and literary scholar. His first poetry collection was published in 1983 and his first novel in 1985, since then he has created many fictional works.

Qusay Abd al-Ra'uf Askar was born in village of Nahr Jasim, Shatt Al-Arab District, east of Basra, Kingdom of Iraq in 1951. His family name derived from his grandfather first name, Askar, plus a title of honor, Sheikh, since he was the first imam of the Iraqi army at the beginning of its establishment in the 1920. He studied primary school in Shatt al-Arab and secondary school in al-Ashar, Basra. He received a BA in Arabic literature from Basra University, Department of Arabic Language, 1973–1984, and a MA in Arabic literature from Damascus University, 1984. Then he obtained PhD from the Islamic College, London, in 2004.