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| Ethel Adnan |
Her Life:
Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek Christian from Smyrna, and her father was a Syrian Muslim from non-commissioned officers; therefore, she grew up speaking Greek and Turkish in a primarily Arabic-speaking community. She received her education in French schools run by nuns, and French was the language in which she wrote her first works. She also learned English in her youth, which became the language she later used for her works.At the age of twenty-four, Adnan traveled to Paris where she received a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the Sorbonne, then went to the United States to continue her studies at the University of California (Berkeley) and Harvard University. From 1952 to 1978, she taught the philosophy of art at Dominican University in California, San Rafael, and also gave lectures at several universities across the United States.
Adnan returned to Lebanon to work as a journalist and cultural editor at the newspaper "Al-Safa," a French-language newspaper in Beirut. She contributed to building the cultural section of the newspaper and added cartoons and illustrations. Her work at the newspaper was characterized by editorials in which she commented on important political issues.
Her Works:
In English
- Shifting the silence, Nightboat, 2020
- Time, Nightboat, 2020
- Surge, Nightboat, 2018
- Night, Nightboat, 2016
- Life Is a Weaving, Galerie Lelong (2016)
- Premonition, Kelsey Street Press (2014)
- To look at the sea is to become what one is: An Etel Adnan Reader, edited by Thom Donovan, Brandon Shimoda, Ammiel Alcalay, and Cole Swensen, Nightboat Books (2014)
- Sea and Fog, Nightboat Books (2012)
- Master of the Eclipse (2009)
- Seasons (2008)
- In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country (2005)
- In/somnia (2002)
- There: In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and of the Other (1997)
- To Write in a Foreign Language (1996)
- Of Cities and Women, Letters to Fawwaz (1993)
- Paris, When It's Naked (1993)
- The Spring Flowers Own and the Manifestations of the Voyage (1990)
- The Arab Apocalypse (1989)
- Journey to Mount Tamalpais: An Essay (1985)
- The Indian Never Had a Horse and Other Poems (1985)
- From A to Z Poetry (1982)
- Sitt marie rose: A Novel (1978)
- Moon Shots, Sausalito-Belvedere Gazette (1967)
- "The Enemy's Testament" in Where is Vietnam?, Anchor Books (1967).
In Arabic
- al-Sitt Mari Ruz: riwayah. (Sitt Marie Rose.), 2000.
- n mudun wa-nisa: rasail il Fawwaz. (Of Cities and Women.) Bayrut: Dar al-Hihar, 1998.
- Kitab al-bahr; kitab al-layal; kitab al-mawt; kitab al-nihayah, Bayrut: Dar Amwaj, 1994.
- al-Sitt Marie Ruz. Bayrut: al-Mu-assasah al-Arabiyah lil-Dirasat wa-al-Nashr, 1979.
In French
- Voyage, guerre, exil, L'Echoppe, 2020
- Un printemps inattendu (entretiens), Galerie Lelong, 2020
- Grandir et devenir poète au Liban, L'Echoppe, 2019
- Tolérance, L'Echoppe, 2018
- Nuit, Editions de l'Attente, 2017
- La vie est un tissage, Galerie Lelong, 2016
- Mer et brouillard, Editions de l'Attente, 2017
- A propos de la fin de l'Empire Ottoman, Galerie Lelong, 2015
- Le Prix que nous ne voulons pas payer pour l'amour, Galerie Lelong, 2015
- Prémonition, Galerie Lelong, 2015
- Là-bas, Editions de l'Attente, 2013
- Paris mis a nu. France: Éditions Tamyras, 2011, translated by Martin Richet.
- Ce ciel qui n'est pas. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997.
- Ce ciel qui n'est pas. Bilingual edition (French-Arabic): Tunis: Tawbad, 2008.
- Rachid Korachi: Ecriture passion, with Rachid Korachi and Jamel-Eddine Bencheikh. Alger: Galerie Mhamed Issiakhem, 1988.
- L'apocalypse arabe. Paris: Papyrus Éditions, 1980.
- Sitt Marie Rose. Paris: Des Femmes, 1978.
- Jbu: Suivi de l'Express Beyrouth enfer. Paris: P.J. Oswald, 1973.