Abbas Beydoun

Abbas Beydoun

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عباس بيضون

Abbas Beydoun is a Lebanese poet, novelist, essayist, and journalist. He has published 21 poetry collections and 7 novels. He was awarded the Mediterranean prize for poetry and the 2017 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for his novel Autumn of Innocence.

He was born in 1945, in southern Lebanon and grew up in Tyr, on the southern coast. His father was a writer who was interested in Islamic history. Beydoun studied Arabic Literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, and later completed a Masters degree in literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. 

He was politically active in left-wing parties and was imprisoned and tortured twice; in 1968 by the Lebanese security forces, and in 1982 by the Israeli forces during their occupation of Lebanon. Beydoun first taught Arabic literature, then worked as a journalist. He was editor of the weekly cultural supplement of the Lebanese daily, As Safir for 20 years. Since the newspaper closed, Beydoun has been writing for other Arab media and currently has a weekly column in the cultural pages of Al Jadid. He has published many volumes of poetry, some of which have been translated into French, Italian, German, and English. His novel Tahlil damm (2002) was translated by Max Weiss and published as Blood Test (Syracuse University Press, 2008), winning the Arkansas Arabic Translation Award. 

© Opéra national du Rhin
Date of birth : 1945
Country of birth: Lebanon
Country of residence: Lebanon
Publisher(s): Dar Al Saqi

Selected bibliography

  • خريف البراءة, Autumn of Innocence*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2016
  • ساعة التخلي, The Hour of Abandonment*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2013
  • البوم الخسارة , Album of Loss*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2012
  • مرايا فرانكشتين, Frankestin’s Mirrors*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2011. French translation: Les miroirs de Frankenstein, Actes Sud, France, 2013, trans. by Nathalie Bontemps
  • بطاقة لشخصين, A Ticket for Two*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2009. French translation: Un Billet Pour Deux, Actes Sud, France, 2021, trans. by Nathalie Bontemps
  • مدافن زجاجية, Glass Burials*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2007. French translation: Tombes de Verre, Actes Sud, France, 2007, trans. by Madona Ayoub and Antoine Jockey
  • ب.ب.ب., Beirut, Berlin, Paris*, Dar Al Saqi, Lebanon, 2007. German translation: Eine Season in Berlin, Selene, Germany, 2004, trans. by Leila Chammaa, Nesrine Shibib and Tarek Eltayeb
  • تحليل دم, Riad Al Rayyes Books and Publishing, 2002, Lebanon. English translation: Blood Test, Syracuse University Press, USA, 2008, trans. by Max Weiss
  • صور, Tyr*, translated into French : Le poème de  Tyr, Actes Sud, France, 2002
  • حجرات, Rooms, published in Poemist, a poetry magazine
  • Other translations: Portes de Beyrouth et autres poèmes, Actes Sud, France, 2009, an anthology of poems chosen from different books; Un Minuto de Retraso Sobre lo Sol, Vaso Roto Ediciones, Spain,  2007 (anthology in Spanish language)

* Working title

Press

Abbas Beydoun, Writing the language of absence in Banipal n°22

‘Dix minutes d’un vaste monde’, Abbas Beydoun au Festival Arsmondo, Opéra National du Rhin in Festival Arsmondo, 2021 (Video in Arabic with French subtitles)

Prizes and awards

Book(s) featured on this site

Reviewed by Iman Humaydan