Tahar Ben Jelloun was born in 1944 in Fes, Morocco. He has published fifteen or so novels, including ‘La nuit sacrée’, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1987 and ‘Cette aveuglante absence de lumière’, which won the Prix Impac in 2004. He has also published a number of essays, including ‘Hospitalité française’ and ‘Le racisme expliqué à ma fille’.

He was elected to the Academy Goncourt in 2008.

He also writes for several newspapers: La Repubblica and L’Espresso (Italy). He occasionally writes for the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. He covers Arab and Muslim topics, write on immigration and various other subjects. He is a chronicler for the Barcelona newspaper Lavanguardia.

On 1 February 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy awarded Tahar Ben Jelloun the Cross of Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur.