Speaker Presentation: Joumana Haddad

Joumana Haddad

Joumana Haddad is a poet, literary translator, magazine publisher and journalist. She has published several widely acclaimed poetry collections, four of which have been translated into French, German, Spanish and Italian. Haddad is head of the cultural pages for the prestigious An Nahar newspaper, as well as the editor-in-chief of Jasad magazine, a controversial Arabic magazine specialized in the literature and arts of the body. She’s been the administrator of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the "Arab Booker") from 2007 till 2011, and is now a member of the prize’s board of trustees.

Speaking seven languages, Haddad is a polyglot and has published several works of translation, including an anthology of Lebanese modern poetry in Spanish, published in Spain as well as in many Latin American countries. She is member of the Book and Reading committee in the Lebanese Ministry of Culture. Joumana Haddad has been awarded the Arab Press Prize in 2006. In 2009, she co-wrote and acted in a movie by Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab ("What's going on?").

In 2009, she was chosen as one of the 39 most interesting Arab writers under 39 and won the International Prize North South for poetry, of the Pescarabruzzo Foundation in Italy. In 2010, she won the Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize and received the Rodolfo Gentili Prize in Porto Recanati, Italy.