The Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize 2010 goes to Lebanese poet JOUMANA HADDAD:
A unique voice in the Arabic literary world
Montreal, February 17th 2010 - Blue Metropolis Foundation will be awarding the 2010 Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize to Lebanese poet Joumana Haddad.
The prize, which was established in 2007, is designed to honour a leading Arab writer working in Arabic or another language. Joumana Haddad will accept the Prize during the 12th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, which will take place at the Delta Hotel Centre-Ville, in downtown Montreal, April 21st to 25th 2010. The prize has a value of $5,000.
Joumana Haddad’s recent books include Invitation to a Secret Feast published in Arabic in 1998 and in English in YEAR (Tupelo Press) and The Return of Lilith published in Arabic in 2004 and in French in 2007 (L’Inventaire). She is fluent in Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish.
About Joumana Haddad
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 North-South International Prize for her poetry by the Italian Pescarabruzz Foundation in November 1999. She has also been chosen to participate in the Beirut39 Festival in March 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 Taher Ben Jalloun 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. 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.
About Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher
The poet Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and wrote what is known as Nabati poetry, which was composed in the Arabic dialect of the Arab Gulf region. He is the earliest known poet of the UAE and reserved a unique place in the collective popular memory of the country. The Bedouins recite his poetry and give it a prominence in the heritage stories relayed throughout the generations. He is considered as a popular epic as he was supposed to have moved from one place to another in Arabia. He chose Al Kharan, in Ras Al Khaima, as his last stop where he later passed away. His grave still stands there.
The popular biography of the late poet talks about his generosity, courage, intelligence, poems, and proverbs. His life-story runs along his daughter's, a poetess herself, although there is only one recorded poem of her work. People say that he prevented her from poetry altogether after listening to that poem.
His Poetry can be found in many manuscripts that go back to the late 19th century. They had recorded sixteen poems, but many Bedouins recite poems that are, or believed to be, his. Many of these poems are not recorded in these old manuscripts.
He used the Hilali rhymes' style in his poetry and his subjects rotate around recalling lost greatness, old age, death, life, judgment, gallant, rain and travelling.
His importance stems from the fact that there was no contemporary poet of his. Other poets came to prominence only half a century after his death.
About the Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize
Bestowed annually to an Arab writer working in any genre, in Arabic or another language, the Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize has a value of $5,000. The prize is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage to increase international recognition for Arab writers and literature.
Chaired by Blue Metropolis Founder and Artistic Director Linda Leith, the 2010 jury includes Issa J. Boullata, writer, literary scholar, translator and contributing editor of Banipal magazine as well as Zaki Nusseibeh, the Advisor in the Ministry of the Presidential Affairs, UAE and Vice Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage.
Blue Metropolis Foundation
Located in Montreal, Blue Metropolis Foundation is a non-profit organization established in June 1997. Its mandate is to bring people of different cultures together to share the pleasures of reading and writing. For more information on Blue Metropolis Foundation, please visit www.bluemetropolis.org.
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Source: Alice van der Klei, Director of Communications
Blue Metropolis Foundation
Media contact:
Christopher DiRaddo
Blue Metropolis Foundation
514 842-5087 / diraddo@videotron.ca