Nathalie Handal
Encyclopedia
Nathalie Handal is a French
-American
poet
and playwright
of Palestinian
origin. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world.
and drama
at Queen Mary College
, University of London
, and a MFA
in creative writing
from Bennington College
, Vermont
. She graduated from Simmons with a Master of Arts
in English and a Bachelor of Arts
in International Relations
and Communications. She has residences in New York City and Paris.
, The Jordan Times and Il Piccolo
, and has read her work all over the world. She was the featured poet in the PBS NewsHour on April 20, 2009. Her book The Lives of Rain was shortlisted for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
and received the Menada
Literary Award. Her latest poetry book, Love and Strange Horses, is the winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY Award), and an Honorable Mention at the San Francisco Book Festival and the New England Book Festival. The New York Times called it "a book that trembles with belonging (and longing)." Her new collection, Poet in Andalucía, is due in 2012.
She has promoted international literature through translation and research, and edited The Poetry of Arab Women, an anthology that introduced several Arab women poets to a wider audience in the West and is used in university classes around the U.S. It was an Academy of American Poets
bestseller and won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
. She co-edited along with Tina Chang
and Ravi Shankar
the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond. She lectures and teaches nationally and internationally, most recently in Africa, at Columbia University
and as Picador Guest Professor at Leipzig University, Germany. Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa
writes, "This cosmopolitan voice belongs to the human family, and it luxuriates in crossing necessary borders."
Handal writes the blog column "The City and The Writer", for online magazine Words Without Borders. She has also written a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible as part of the Bush Theatre
's 2011 project Sixty-Six Books.
Anthologies
Plays
CDs
Essays
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
of Palestinian
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
origin. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world.
Biography
Handal was listed as one of the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2011 in a Special Report by ArabianBusiness.com. She is a Lannan Foundation Fellow, a Fundación Araguaney Fellow, recipient of the Alejo Zuloaga Order in Literature 2011, the AE Ventures Fellowship, an Honored Finalist for the 2009 Gift of Freedom Award, and was shortlisted for New London Writers Awards and The Arts Council of England Writers Awards. She earned a MPhil in EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
at Queen Mary College
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, and a MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
from Bennington College
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont, USA. The college was founded in 1932 as a women's college and became co-educational in 1969.-History:-Early years:...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. She graduated from Simmons with a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in English and a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in International Relations
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
and Communications. She has residences in New York City and Paris.
Career
Handal is the author of three books of poetry, several plays and the co-editor of two anthologies. She has also been involved as a writer, director, or producer in over twelve theatrical or film productions. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, such as The Guardian, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetrywales, Ploughshares, Poetry New Zealand, Crab Orchard Review, and The Literary Review; and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. She has been featured in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Mail & GuardianMail & Guardian
The Mail & Guardian is a South African weekly newspaper, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a strong focus on politics, government, the environment, civil society and business.- The Mail & Guardian newspaper :...
, The Jordan Times and Il Piccolo
Il Piccolo
Il Piccolo is the main daily newspaper of Trieste, Italy. It has been founded in 1881 and it has since kept a moderately progressive political stance.-External links:*...
, and has read her work all over the world. She was the featured poet in the PBS NewsHour on April 20, 2009. Her book The Lives of Rain was shortlisted for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize is a major American literary award for a first full-length book of poetry in the English language.This prize of the University of Pittsburgh Press in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA was initiated by Ed Ochester and developed by Frederick A. Hetzel. The prize is...
and received the Menada
Menada
Menada is a genus of moths of the Noctuidae family.-References:*...
Literary Award. Her latest poetry book, Love and Strange Horses, is the winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY Award), and an Honorable Mention at the San Francisco Book Festival and the New England Book Festival. The New York Times called it "a book that trembles with belonging (and longing)." Her new collection, Poet in Andalucía, is due in 2012.
She has promoted international literature through translation and research, and edited The Poetry of Arab Women, an anthology that introduced several Arab women poets to a wider audience in the West and is used in university classes around the U.S. It was an Academy of American Poets
Academy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
bestseller and won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
According to its website, PEN Oakland was founded in 1989 by Ishmael Reed, who came up with the idea, and co-founders Floyd Salas, Reginald Lockett and Claire Ortalda, in order to “promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate both the public and the...
. She co-edited along with Tina Chang
Tina Chang
Tina Chang is an American poet, teacher, and editor. She is currently Poet Laureate of Brooklyn.-Life:Chang was born in 1969 in Oklahoma, to Chinese immigrants who had met in Montreal, where her mother was working as a nurse and her father was earning his doctorate in physics. The family moved to...
and Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (poet)
Ravi Shankar is an American poet. He was raised in Manassas, VA. He is the poet-in-residence at Central Connecticut State University and the founding editor of the online journal of the arts, Drunken Boat. His first book, Instrumentality, was published by Cherry Grove in May 2004, and was a...
the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond. She lectures and teaches nationally and internationally, most recently in Africa, at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and as Picador Guest Professor at Leipzig University, Germany. Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...
writes, "This cosmopolitan voice belongs to the human family, and it luxuriates in crossing necessary borders."
Handal writes the blog column "The City and The Writer", for online magazine Words Without Borders. She has also written a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible as part of the Bush Theatre
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...
's 2011 project Sixty-Six Books.
Works
Poetry- The Neverfield Poem (Interlink Books, 1999)
- The Lives of Rain (Interlink Books, 2005)
- Love and Strange Horses (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)
- Poet in Andalucía (University of Pittsburgh Press, expected 2012)
Anthologies
- The Poetry of Arab Women (2001, ed. by Handal)
- Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond (W.W. Norton, 2008, ed. by Handal, Tina Chang and Ravi Shankar)
Plays
- Between Our Lips
- La Cosa Dei Sogni
- The Stonecutters
- The Details of Silence
- The Oklahoma Quartet
- Hakawatiyeh
- Men in Verse"
CDs
- Traveling Rooms
- Spell
Essays
- "Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile", The ProgressiveThe ProgressiveThe Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
, May 2002 - "Sisterhood of Hope", interview with Zainab Salbi, Saudi Aramco World, September/October 2010
- "We Are All Going to Die", interview with Edwidge Dandicat, Guernica Magazine, January 2011
- "The Other Face of Silence", interview with Elia Suleiman, Guernica MagazineGuernica MagazineGuernica / A Magazine of Art and Politics is a biweekly online site that publishes art and photography, fiction, and poetry, from around the world, along with nonfiction such as letters from abroad, investigative pieces and opinion pieces on international affairs and U.S. domestic policy...
, May 2011
Awards
- New London Writers Award, shortlisted in 2000, 2001
- The Arts Council of England Writers Award, shortlisted 2002
- Pen Oakland/Josephine Miles National Book Award Winner, 2002
- Shortlisted for The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry/The Pitt Poetry Series, 2005
- Menada Literary Award, Macedonia, 2006
- AE Ventures Fellowship, 2007–08
- Centro Cultural Generación del 27 and Centro Andaluz de las Letras Fellow, 2009
- Honored Finalist 2009 Gift of Freedom Award
- Honorable Mention, San Francisco Book Festival, 2010
- Honorable Mention, New England Book Festival, 2011
- Fundación Araguaney Fellow, 2011
- Lannan Foundation Fellow, 2011–12
- La Orden Alejo Zuloaga (Alejo Zuloaga Order in Literature), 2011
- Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY Award), 2011