ETEL ADNAN

b. 1925, Beirut, Lebanon.

 Etel Adnan is a polyglot poet, writer and artist, born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. She completed her schooling in French schools. 

Aged 24, Adnan moved to Paris to study for her degree in Philosophy from the Sorbonne. She furthered her education in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley and at Harvard university. 

Her solidarity with the Algerian war of independence stopped her from writing in French to avoid the political implications that come along with it; she altered her focus in creative expression to visual art, becoming a painter. She became an “American poet” (in her own words) when she started writing poetry as part of the poets’ movement against the war in Vietnam.

After moving back to Beirut in 1972, she worked for two newspapers as the cultural editor. 

Her 1977 novel ‘Sitt Marie-Rose’ won the “France-Pays Arabes” award, and became a classic of War Literature.