Joumana Haddad
(Lebanon, 1970) is a poet, journalist, translator, editor and consultant. In her work she focuses on eroticism and the liberation of Arab women from their paternalistic yoke. Hoe ik Sheherazade heb vermoord, bekentenissen van een boze Arabische vrouw (How I killed Scheherazade, confessions of an angry Arab woman) in 2010 attracted a great deal of international attention. In this autobiographical essay she stood up for the sexual liberation of Arab women - at the same time condemning western clichés. Haddad speaks seven languages and has translated various works of prose and poetry into and from Arabic. As head of the cultural pages of the Lebanese daily An Nahar she interviewed well-known writers such as Umberto Eco, Wole Soyinka and Paul Auster. By the end of 2008 she launched Jasad (Arabic for body), the first Arab erotic cultural magazine. The flamboyant writer now works on a Ph.D. at the Sorbonne on the translation of the Marquis de Sade in Arabic. A selection of her poetry can be read in English translation on www.joumanahaddad.com. Her work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Polish, English and Italian, and she has won numerous international literary prizes.
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Archive available for: Joumana Haddad
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Poetry and Politics
A Lebanese and a Turkish writer, who, apart from being a poet and a writer, happen to be concerned columnists. A conversation about their work, their political stand and literary commitment. In English.
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Wet Dreams on a Winter's Night
Four liberated writers about the joys of shamelessness. Petra Stienen hosts a discussion on writing about sex, the narrow-minded reactions of (some) men and their 'je m'en fou' attitude vis-a-vis conservative readers. A conversation without embarrassment, without borders, without rules: four women talking about the joys of shamelessness, sprinkled with spicy anecdotes and fine fragments. In English.
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Mad as Hell - part 3
Joumana Haddad and Özcan Akyol enter the stage one by one and for a couple of minutes turn off their sense of nuance, eventualities, 'perhaps this could be seen from another perspective' and other footnotes. On stage it is the belly of literature speaking. Of course they remain men and women of letters, so expect an eloquent, passionate avalanche of words. English and Dutch.
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International poetry: The Right Word
'It only needed to be found,' Esther Jansma writes in her poem 'Everything is new'. In this international poets' programme four poets of stature talked to each other about their quest for words. With Esther Jansma, the Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad, the Turkish/Cypriot Nese Yasin and Laksmi Pamuntjak (Indonesia). Hosted by the poet Tsead Bruinja.
