Nathalie Handal

Nathalie Handal (Arabic: نتالي حنظل‎) is a French-American poet and playwright of Palestinian origin.^[1][2] She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world.^{[citation needed]}

Biography

Handal was listed as one of the 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2011 in a Special Report by ArabianBusiness.com.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} She earned a MPhil in English and drama at Queen Mary College, University of London, and a MFA in creative writing from Bennington College, Vermont.^[3] She graduated from Simmons with a Master of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Communications.^{[citation needed]} She has residences in New York City and Paris.^{[citation needed]}

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 & Guardian, The Jordan Times and Il Piccolo, and has read her work all over the world.^{[citation needed]} She was the featured poet in the PBS NewsHour on April 20, 2009.^[4] Her book The Lives of Rain was shortlisted for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize^[2] 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)."^{[citation needed]} Her new collection, Poet in Andalucía, is due in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[1] It was an Academy of American Poets bestseller and won the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award.^[5] 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.^[5] 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."^{[citation needed]}

Handal writes the blog column "The City and The Writer", for online magazine Words Without Borders.^[6] 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.^[7][8]

Works

Poetry

• The Neverfield Poem (Interlink Books, 1999)^[5]
• The Lives of Rain (Interlink Books, 2005)^[5]
• Love and Strange Horses (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)
• Poet in Andalucía (University of Pittsburgh Press, expected 2012)^{[citation needed]}

Anthologies

• The Poetry of Arab Women (2001, ed. by Handal)^[5]
• 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)^[5]

Plays

• Between Our Lips^[9]
• La Cosa Dei Sogni^[9]
• The Stonecutters^[9]
• The Details of Silence^[2]
• The Oklahoma Quartet^[10]
• Hakawatiyeh
• Men in Verse"^[7][8][11]

CDs

• Traveling Rooms^[5]
• Spell^[5]

Essays

• "Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile", The Progressive, May 2002^[12]
• "Sisterhood of Hope", interview with Zainab Salbi, Saudi Aramco World, September/October 2010^[13]
• "We Are All Going to Die", interview with Edwidge Dandicat, Guernica Magazine, January 2011^[14]
• "The Other Face of Silence", interview with Elia Suleiman, Guernica Magazine, May 2011^[15]

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

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Shalal-Esa, Andrea (2006-12-20). "Arab-American writer is ambassador for Middle East". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122000095.html. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "PEN American Center - Nathalie Handal". PEN American Center. http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1279. Retrieved 2008-03-19. 
3. ^ "Nathalie Handal". Literati Magazine. Fall 2005. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928141742/http://www.literati-magazine.com/magazine_features/fall05/readingroom/nathalie-handal.html. Retrieved 2008-03-19. 
4. ^ "Well-traveled Poet Finds Consistency in Words". Online NewsHour. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. 2009-04-20. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june09/handal_04-20.html. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Nathalie Handal". Kennedy Center. http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=HNDLNTHLIE. Retrieved 2009-05-15. 
6. ^ Handal, Nathalie (2010-09-22). "New Blog Series: Nathalie Handal's 'The City and the Writer'". Words Without Borders. http://wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/new-blog-series-nathalie-handals-the-city-and-the-writer/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Writers". The Alternative Theatre Company Ltd (The Bush Theatre). http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/biography/writers/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Sixty-Six Books". The Alternative Theatre Company Ltd (The Bush Theatre). http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/sixtysix/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
9. ^ ^{a b c} "Nathalie Handal: Theatre and Film". Nathalie Handal. http://www.nathaliehandal.com/theatreAndFilm.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
10. ^ Hill, Holly (2009). "Middle Eastern American Theatre: History, Playwrights and Plays". Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. http://inclusioninthearts.org/projects/middle-eastern-american-theatre-history-playwrights-and-plays/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
11. ^ "Nathalie Handal: Men in Verse in response to 2 John". The Alternative Theatre Company Ltd (The Bush Theatre). http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/sixtysix/writers/bio/nathalie-handal. Retrieved 2011-09-27. 
12. ^ Handal, Nathalie (May 2002). "Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile". The Progressive. http://progressive.org/node/1575. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
13. ^ "Sisterhood of Hope". Saudi Aramco World. Aramco Services Company. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201005/sisterhood.of.hope.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
14. ^ "We Are All Going to Die". Guernica Magazine. January 2011. http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2272/danticat_1_15_11/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 
15. ^ "The Other Face of Silence". Guernica Magazine. May 2011. http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/2628/suleiman_5_1_11/. Retrieved 2011-09-13. 

External links

• Official website

Persondata
Name	Handal, Nathalie
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 29, 1969
Place of birth	Haiti
Date of death
Place of death