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Arab-Canadian Writers
Naim Kattan (b. 1928)
Naim Kattan
•
Born in Baghdad to an Arab Jewish family, Kattan studied
law at the Sorbonne in France, then moved to Canada in
1954. He lives in Montreal and writes in French.
•
His most famous book, Farwell Babylon, was published in
1975. It is a fictionalized memoires written in French about
his early years in Iraq before the immigration wave that
forced manyy Jewish
J
Iraqis
q to flee the countryy in 1954.
•
Kattan wrote novels, short stories, essays and theatre.
Nadia Ghalem (b. 1941)
Nadia Ghalem
• Born in Algeria to a Muslim family of Berber,
Turkish and Arab origins
Turkish,
origins, Ghalem moved to
Canada in 1965. She lives in Montreal and writes in
French.
• She is the author of Exile (poems, 1980); Gardens of
Crystal (novel,
(novel 1981); The Blue Night (short stories,
stories
1991).
Abla Farhoud (b. 1945)
Abla Farhoud
•Abla Farhoud is a playwright born in Lebanon, moved to
Canada in the late 1950s. She studied theatre in France and has
an MA in Theatre from the University of Quebec in Montreal.
Montreal
She writes in French.
•Her
Her work includes:
Les filles du 5-10-15¢ (1993), Jeux de patience (1997), Théâtre québécois
p
((1997),
), Le bonheur a la qqueue gglissante ((1998),
), Maudite
contemporain
machine (1999), Splendide solitude (2001), Les rues de l'alligator (2003),
Le fou d'Omar (2005), Le Sourire de la Petite Juive (2011).
John Asfour (b. 1945)
John Asfour
•
Born in Lebanon, John Asfour moved to Canada in 1968. He
is the author of 5 volumes of poetry in English and 2
volumes in Arabic. He resides in Montreal.
•
Translator and author of an anthology of poetry titled When
the Words Burn: An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry.
•
His publications include: Blindfold,
Blindfold 2010; Fields of my Blood,
Blood
1997; One Fish from the Rooftop, 1992.
Mona Latif-Ghattas (b. 1946)
Mona Latif-Ghattas
•
Born in Egypt, Mona Latif-Ghattas immigrated to Canada in
1966 and studied Theatre and French literature at the
University of Montreal.
Montreal She writes in French and translates
from Arabic to French.
•
She published poetry,
poetry novels,
novels stories,
stories translations and
produced music recitals of her own poetry. Her work
includes: Nicolas le fils du Nil; Les voix du jour et de la nuit; Lunes
d miel; Quarante voiles pour un exil; Le double
de
d
conte dde l’exil; Les
filles de Sophie Barrât; Les chants modernes du bienaimé; and Le livre
ailé.
Rawi Hage (b. 1964)
Rawi Hage
•
Rawi Hage was born in Beirut and lived through nine years of
the Lebanese civil war. He is a writer and a visual artist and
resides in Montreal since 1991.
•
His novel De Niro's Game (2006), was a finalist for numerous
prestigious national and international awards, and won the
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
•
His second novel Cockroach (2008) won the Quebec Writers'
Federation Award and was shortlisted for numerous
prestigious awards including the Scotia Bank Giller Prize, the
Governor General's Award, The Writers' Trust Award, and
the Prix des libraires du Québec.
May Telmissany (b. 1965)
May Telmissany
•
Born in Cairo in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Heliopolis, May
Telmissany immigrated to Canada in 1998.
•
After fi
Af
finishing
i hi h
her Ph
Ph.D
D in
i Comparative
C
i Literature
Li
andd Cinema
Ci
(Université de Montréal, 2005), she moved to Ottawa where she currently
teaches in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
•
Telmissany published three novels, Duniazad (1997), Heliopolis (2000) and
Acappella (2012); two short stories collections: Repetitive Sculpture (1995)
and Mental Betrayals (1999) as well as a book of memoirs: The Gates of
Paradise: Chronicals of Exile (2009).
•
Her literary work, published in Arabic, is translated into seven European
languages.
g g
Iman Mersal (b. 1966)
Iman Mersal
•
Iman Mersal is a poet born in Egypt in 1966. She moved to
Canada in 1997 at the age of 31. She lives and works as a
university professor in Edmonton, Alberta.
•
She published 4 poetry volumes including A Dark Passageway
Is Suitable for Learning to Dance (1995); Walking as Long as
Possible (1997) and Alternative Geography (2006) all published in
Cairo.
•
An anthology of her work was published in English under
the title: These are not Oranges
g myy Love.
Nada Sattouf (b. 1966)
Nada Sattouf
•
Nada Sattouf is a poet born in Lebanon in 1966. She moved
to Canada in 2002
2002. She is currently writing a PhD dissertation
in French literature at the University of Sherbrook. Nada
Sattouf writes in French.
•
She published two poetry volumes in Lebanon, and two
volumes in Canada: Mémoires et un sommeil published in
Montreall in
i 2007
00 andd Bayt,
B published
bli h d in
i Montreall in
i 2009.
009
Wajdi Mouawad (b. 1968)
W jdi M
Wajdi
Mouawad
d
•
Wajdi Mouawad is one of the most prominent playwhright
andd theatre
h
di
director in
i Canada.
C d Born
B
in
i Lebanon
L b
in
i 1968,
1968 he
h
moved to Canada in 1983.
•
publications include: 1996: Alphonse;
p
; 1999: Les mains
His p
d'Edwige au moment de la naissance; 1999-2009: Littoral; 2000:
Pacamambo; 2002: Rêves; 2003: Incendies; 2004: Willy Protagoras
enfermé dans les toilettes; 2006: Forêts; 2007: Assoiffés; 2008: Seuls Ch i texte et peintures;
Chemin,
i
2009 Ciels;
2009:
Ci l 2011:
2011 Journée
J
é de
d noces chez
h les
l
Cromagnons.
•
Hsp
His
play
ay Incendies (Scorched) has bee
been produced
p oduced all
a over
ove the
world, including the United States, Austria, Germany, Mexico
and Australia, and the 2007 production at the Tarragon
Theatre in Toronto won several awards. Incendies the film
version
i off the
h play
l (di
(directedd by
b Denis
D i Villeneuve)
Vill
) is
i Canada's
C d '
official selection for the 2011 Academy Awards.
Dimitri Nasrallah
(b. 1977)
Dimitri Nasrallah
•
Dimitri Nasrallah was born in 1977 during the Lebanese civil
war. In 1981, his family went into exile, living in Athens,
Kuwait and Dubai before immigrating to Canada in 1988.
Kuwait,
1988
•
He is the author of two novels, Niko (Esplanade Editions,
2011) and Blackbodying (DC Books, 2005). His first novel won
the Quebec Writers’ Federation McAuslan First Book Award
and was named finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de
M tr l Si
Montreal.
Since 2000
2000, he
h h
has p
published
bli h d numerous
m r
short
h rt
stories in magazines and journals.