Raafat Hekmat is a Syrian poet and writer of short stories. In 2020, he was awarded the Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture for his short story collection As if I Were Dreaming. His latest book Ten Minutes Late for the World was published in 2023 by Dar Al Nahda Al Arabia.
Hekmat’s writings are featured in three anthologies: The Musuem of Rubble- Fear and Isolation, a poetry collection published by Dar Ninawa Damascus in 2019, Witnesses from its People: Stories of the Pandemic, published by Dar Al'an Jordan in 2020, and Decameron- We Narrate for Survival, published by published by Dar Al'an Jordan, also in 2020. In 2022, In Fear of the Hunter was published by the Egyptian General Book Authority in Cairo.
Raafat Hekmat has been a regular contirbutor for the Lebanese website Daraj, writing on Syrian issues under a pseudonym. He also did voice overs in Arabic for National Geographic and other media platforms.
In September 2023, Hekmat arrived in Stockholm, where he is the ICORN resident for the period 2023-2025.