Receive Our Newsletter
For news of readings, events and new titles.
was born in Baghdad in 1952, and studied journalism, working in the Iraqi press and radio. She moved to Paris in 1979 where she gained a PhD and worked as a journalist. She is presently Paris correspondent of Asharq Al-Awsat and Kol Al-Usra newspapers.
She has published two non-fiction books, Lorna, her years with Jawad Selim (Arabic, Dar el-Jadid, Beirut, 1998), and Paroles d’Irakiennes (French, Le Serpent à Plumes, Paris, 2003), and in 2004 made a 30-minute documentary film about Naziha Al Dulaimi, the iraqi woman doctor who, in 1959, was the first woman to become a minister in an Arab country.
Her debut novel Sawaqi al-Quloob [Streams of Hearts], was excerpted in Banipal 26, in a translation by Muhayman Jamil. Sawaqi al-Quloob was published in 2005 by Al-Muassassa al-Arabiya lil-Nashr, Amman-Beirut.
Inaam Kachachi's novel, Al-Hafeeda al-Amreekiya [The American Granddaughter], published by Dar el-Jadid, 2008, was shortlisted for the 2008-09 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Her novel Tashari, published in English as The Dispersal (Interlink, 2022), translated by Inam Jaber, was shortlisted for the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Her novel The Outcast is based on a true story and spans the history of modern Iraq. It was shortlisted for the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 64 - A Rebel named Hanan al-Shaykh (2019)