Posts Tagged ‘women writers’
SIX PROFILES OF ARAB WOMEN WRITERS:
Egyptian novelist Salwa Bakr: “Bakr suggested that the lack of political support explains the surge of women seeking to express these contradictions through literature, especially in recent decades.”
Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifeh: “During all those years in which I played the role of a frustrated housewife, I used to read that letter, look around and wonder, ‘Is this what I expected from life? To cook and wash dishes and wait for a husband who believes that I am here to make up for his mistakes?’”
Hanan al-Shaykh
Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh: “ I remember a professor at one of the American universities and she told me, ‘Oh, Ms. al-Shaykh, I love your work. But I don’t dare to teach it because I don’t want people to think that this is how the Arabs are.’”
Lebanese novelist Hoda Barakat: “I’m never interested about heroes, about men who make history and the characters who believe in something. I don’t have an answer to anything, so when we were on our tour I let the other writers answer the big questions.”
Iraqi novelist Hadiya Hussein: ”Indeed, I feel closer to my country when I’m away. It is like a work of art: It gets clearer the more we step away from it.”
Algerian writer/filmmaker Assia Djebar: “… yes, sometimes fear grips me that these fragile moments of life will fade away. It seems that I write against erasure.”
SIX ARAB WOMEN WRITERS MENTIONED FOR LITERATURE NOBEL PRIZE:
Painting by Etel Adnan
Etel Adnan, (1925 – ). Adnan, a Lebanese author who continues to be a vibrant force in the literary scene, has written a number of pioneering works. You can certainly see her impact in the recently released Homage to Etel Adnan.
Nawal al-Saadawi, (1931 – ). Al-Saadawi, an Egyptian activist, doctor, and novelist, is a bit improbable as a Nobel Prize for Lit winner, although she is certainly an indomitable political force. Her memoirs are perhaps most interesting (more interesting than her fiction); Memoirs from a Women’s Prison in particular.
Assia Djebar, (1936 – ). Djebar, an Algerian author and filmmaker who writes in French, has been a regular on the Nobel list since her Neustadt award. Works in translation include her Women of Algiers in Their Apartment and Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade.
Hanan al-Shaykh, (1945 – ). Lebanese-British al-Shaykh is author of the brilliant Story of Zahra, Women of Sand and Myrrh, among others; most of her works are available in English, several translated by Catherine Cobham.
Radwa Ashour, (1946 – ). A wide-ranging Egyptian novelist In translation you can find her meta-fictional Specters, as well as Granada and Siraj, and I understand that her celebrated Farag is forthcoming from BQFP.
Huda Barakat, (1952 – ) Also Lebanese, her Tiller of Waters and Stones of Laughter are beautifully layered and textured, like the fabrics in Tiller, with a wonderful exploration of the relationship between humans and the objects of daily life.
SIX POEMS & PROSE EXCERPTS BY ARAB WOMEN WRITERS:
Iman Mersal’s “Oranges,” trans. Khaled Mattawa
Maram al-Massri’s “Women Like Me,” trans. Khaled Mattawa
Nujoom al-Ghanem “She Who Resembles Herself,” trans. Khaled al-Masri
Hanan al-Shaykh’s “Beirut 1934,” trans. Roger Allen
Nazik al-Mala’ika “Love Song for Words,” trans. Rebecca Carol Johnson
Adania Shibli’s “Out of Time,” trans. the author
Adonis Diaries 