Quick Facts
Biography
Alexandra Chreiteh ألكسندرا شريتح is a Lebanese author known for her frank writing and portrayal barriers faced by Arab women.
Early Life and education
Alexandra Chreiteh was raised in a religiously conservative region by her Russian mother and Lebanese father. Chreiteh completed her Bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon.
After being granted a graduate fellowship by Yale University, she began her PhD in Comparative Literature during the fall of 2009. While at Yale, Chreiteh has completed her Masters of Arts in Comparative Literature in 2012 as well as a Masters of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in 2013. She has also been teaching creative writing at Yale.
Always Coca-Cola
Chreiteh's completed her first novel, Always Coca-Cola, while studying at Lebanese American University, after drafting the story for an assignment in an Arabic creative writing class. The book's protagonist is Abeer Ward, a college-age woman who is concerned with protecting her purity and closely following Muslim traditions. Her close friend and model, Yana, is pregnant out of wedlock, and Abeer attempts to help her. Yana's modeling career puts her into a soda ad that features her nearly naked body. Abeer witnesses and experiences many attacks on women's bodies which lead her to experience a coming-of-age moment.
The manuscript, which drew offers from three publishers, was first released in May 2009 and English translation by Michelle Hartman followed in 2012. It received favourable reviews for shedding an intimate light on the lives of Arab women. According to Chreiteh, she "wasn't trying to write something extraordinary - it's just the people you see every day".
Ali and His Russian Mother
In 2010 Chreiteh published her second novel, Ali and His Russian Mother [ʻAlī wa-ummuhu al-Rūsīyah]. Like Always Coca-Cola, it was translated to English by Michelle Hartman who maintained Chreiteh's omission of chapters or subheadings in favour of a "continuous flow of words". The story is about a homosexual Arab man who discovers that one of his ancestors was Jewish.