Najwa Barakat
Encyclopedia
Career
Najwa Barakat was born (1966) in BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
. After achieving studies in theater (Beirut Fine Arts Institute) and cinema (French cinema Institution), she moves definitely to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where she works as a freelance journalist in a number of Arabic newspapers and magazines, and gathered the materials for several cultural programs produced by Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...
(RFI) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She also prepared the first fifteen episodes of the cultural program broadcasted at Aljaz, and authored several movie scripts as well as directing several documentaries.
Najwa Barakat has published six novels (five in Arabic and one in French), most of which were published by Dar al-Adab in Beirut. Some of them have obtained awards and were translated into foreign languages, among which “The bus of good people” (1996), which received the "Prize of the best literary creation of the year", by the Lebanese Cultural Forum, Paris, in 1997, and was translated into French in 2002, under the title: "Le bus des gens bien" - Stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
Publisher (La Cosmoplite). The novel in French, "La locataire du Pot de fer" (the tenant), published by L’Harmattan Publisher in Paris, played on theater in France, "Winner of the First Prize" at the Amateur Theatre Festival in Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...
, France . She also translated Les Carnets de Camus I – II – III into Arabic, published by Kalima and Dar Al-Adab, Summer 2010.
In 2003, the circuit Meaddle East- Goethe Institute choose her among several Lebanese writers to represent her country in the MIDAD Project: city's teller.
In 2009, she set up "Mohtaraf how to write a novel - for litterature, theater and cinema" : a permanent workshop located in Beirut, which receives young and aspiring writers of all ages and from all Arab countries, not only in the narrative field, but also in theatrical and movie script writing. Certainly, a pioneering and innovative initiative in the Arab World.
Works
- The Secret Language (loughat al-sirr)
- Ya-Salâm
- The Tenant
- The Bus of Good People (Bâs el-awâdem)
- The Life and Passion of Hamad (hayât wa alâm Hamad ibn Siléneh)
- The Transducer (Al-muhawwel)