Receive Our Newsletter
For news of readings, events and new titles.
Liana Badr
Liana Badr is a well-known Palestinian novelist, short story writer and film director. Born in 1950 in Jerusalem, she lived between Jericho and Jerusalem. Exiled from Jericho in 1967, she has lived in Amman, Beirut, Damascus and Tunis, and since 1994 in Ramallah.She studied at the University of Jordan and the Lebanese University, has a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Beirut Arab University and an MA from Birzeit University in Contemporary Arabic Literature.
In 1979 she published her first novel A Compass for the sunflower (English edition translated by Catherine Cobham, Women’s Press, 1989). A book of novellas, A Balcony over the Fakihani, came out in 1983 with editions published in Damascus, Cairo, Palestine and Jordan. Its English version came out ten years later, translated by Peter Clark and Christopher Tingley. In 1991, her novel The Eye of the Mirror was published (English edition translated by Samira Kawar, Garnet Publishing, Arab Women Writers Series, edited by Fadia Faqir, 2008). Published as supplementary to the series was In the House of SIlence, an anthology of essays by Arab women writers, including by Liana Badr.
In 1993 her novel Stars Over Jericho, which has French and Italian versions but not yet English, came out, and in 2016 her latest novelThe White Tent (reviewed by Fadia Faqir in Banipal 58, 2017, and available here to read online).
Liana Badr also has four collections of short stories with many individually translated for various international anthologies, three collections of poetry, two non-fiction works on Mahmoud Darwish and on Fadwa Tuqan, plus many essays on aspects of her life and literature for international publications, as well as twelve children’s books. Banipal 62 (Summer 2018) published her essay All I Want to Do is Write, in the regular feature on authors' Literary Influences. Her short story "One Sky", translated by Becki Maddock, was published in Banipal 57 (Spring 2018) and is available to read online here.
Her works have translations into several languages, including English, French Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian and Norwegian.
Between 1999 and 2007 she has also directed seven documentary films, which have received many international awards, and written several film scripts.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 57 - Syria in the Heart (Autumn/Winter 2016)
Banipal 74 - Celebrating Khalida Said and Modern Arabic Poetry (Summer 2022)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
* * *
* * *
* * *
Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
* * *
Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
* * *
* * *
GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
* * *
* * *
* * *
Banipal's first audiobook* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
Banipal Book Club
* * *
