Joumana Haddad: Recipient of the 2010 Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize

 

Born in 1970 in Beirut, Joumana Haddad is a poet, literary translator, magazine publisher and journalist who speaks seven languages. She is working on a Ph.D. on poetic translation. She was awarded the Arab Press Prize in 2006, and the North-South International Prize for her poetry by the Italian Pescarabruzzo Foundation in November 2009. She has also been chosen to participate in the Beirut39 Festival in April 2010; this is a project conceived as part of Beirut UNESCO World Book Capital in 2009 to celebrate thirty nine Arabic authors under the age of 39. The famous French-Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun describes her as "a unique voice in the Arabic literary world."

In 2008, she founded the cultural magazine Jasad (www.jasadmag.com), which aims to reflect the body in all its representations, symbols and projections.

Joumana Haddad's many books include Invitation to a Secret Feast published in Arabic in 1998 and in English in 2008 (Tupelo Press), The Return of Lilith published in Arabic in 2004 as well as in French, Italian, Spanish, German and Swedish, and I killed Sheherazade (in English with Saqi books, 2010). She is fluent in Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish, and most of her books have been translated into these languages.

She has interviewed writers including Umberto Eco, Paul Auster and Yves Bonnefoy, and she also co-wrote and performed in the 2009 film Qu'est ce qui se passe? directed by Jocelyne Saab as well as participating in a documentary on the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

Cultural editor of the Lebanese daily An Nahar, Haddad is also the administrator of International Prize for Arabic Fiction known as the Arab Booker prize.