May Menassa
was born in Beirut in 1939 and holds a postgraduate diploma in French Literature.
She has published four novels, as well as a children’s book and many translations, mainly from French. [Walking in the Dust], which tells the powerful story of dealing with tragedy and loss in war from a very young age, was short-listed this year for the inaugural Arabic “Booker” prize. An excerpt of the novel has been published in Banipal 32.
May Menassa began her journalistic career in television in 1959, and has worked as a critic for the Lebanese daily newspaper An Nahar since 1969.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal No 32 Summer 2008
Latest News
06/02/2012At a celebration of literary translation on Monday 6 February at Kings Place, Khaled Mattawa will receive the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
[read more]03/02/2012
The Mosaic Rooms celebrates theartistic and poetic works of the great Syrian poet Adonis with talks and events from 3-8 February and an exhibition of Adonis's collages from 3 February until 30 March. The opening evening this Friday sees Adonis in conversation with Khaled Mattawa who is the winner of the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for his translation Adonis: Selected Poems.
[read more]16/01/2012
Khaled Mattawa wins the 2011 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Translation Prize for Adonis:Selected Poems
[read more]12/01/2012
Chair of IPAF Judges Georges Tarabichi announces the shortlist authors of the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
[read more]09/01/2012
Banipal Book Club's first book for discussion is The Tobacco Keeper by Ali Bader.
[read more]08/01/2012
Ibrahim Aslan, one of Egypt's best-loved authors, has died of heart failure at the age of 77.
[read more][read all news stories]