Hedy Habra

Hedy Habra is an award-winning Lebanese-American poet, professor, fiction writer, literary critic and essayist. Born in Heliopolis, Egypt, she lived in both Egypt and Lebanon, as well as Athens, Greece, and Brussels, Belgium, before settling in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she now resides.

Prior to moving to the United States, Habra completed a B.S. in Pharmacy at the Faculté Française de Médecine et de Pharmacie of Beirut, S.J. She holds an M.A. and an M.F.A. in English and an M.A. and PhD in Spanish Literature, which were all granted by Western Michigan University, where she currently teaches.

Habra is an avid student of languages, and is fluent in French, Arabic, English, Spanish and Italian. She studied Greek and Latin at WMU and Mandarin Chinese at the WMU Confucius Institute, along with Chinese Ink Painting and Tai Chi.

Awards

The Taste of the Earth

• 2019 USA Best Books Awards Finalist.

Under Brushstrokes

• Finalist, 2016 International Books Awards, Poetry Category
• Finalist, 2016 USA Best Book Award, Poetry Category
• Nomination, 2016 Pushcart Prize, "How Much of Yourself Remains Within the Walls of a Home", "A Bird's Song, Unraveled", "Visiting my Mother in Montreal"

Tea in Heliopolis

• Winner, 2014 USA Best Book Award, Poetry Category
• Finalist, 2014 International Poetry Book Award

Flying Carpets

• Winner, Honorable Mention, 2013 Arab American Book Award in Fiction
• Finalist, 2014 Eric Hoffer Book Award in Short Fiction
• Finalist for the 2014 USA Best Book Award in Short Fiction

Academic awards

• Excellence in Teaching Award Western Michigan University (2015–2016)
• Excellence in Teaching Award Western Michigan University (2014)
• Alumni Achievements Award Western Michigan University (2013)

Poetry

• Tiferet Journal Poetry Contest Honorable Mention (2014): "I'd Like to Sing a Song of Freedom"
• Pirene's Fountain Poetry Awards (2014): Monostich Poetry Contest Winner "Canvas", Four Lines Poetry Contest Winner "Resonance"
• Nazim Hikmet Fourth Annual International Poetry Competition Winner (2012):"I Always Knew I was a Sybil at Heart," "Weaving and Unweaving", "Writing in Dust"
• New Millennium Award Semi-finalists (2011–2012):"Shipwrecked," "Obsessive Compulsion"
• Letras Femeninas Premio Victoria Urbano Winner (2007):"Mascarade," "Bricolage," "Simulacra," "Unborn," "Evening Walk"
• Explicación de Textos Literarios Premio Spanish Press Winner (2005):"Bajo pinceladas,""El sol también tiene su lado oscuro," "Contrapunto"
• Nimrod/Hardman Award, Pablo Neruda Prize Finalists (2003):"Tea at Chez Paul's," "Untold Tale(s) of Unfinished Tapestry," "Narguileh,""I had Never Seen a Dead Man Before," "Open-Air Cinema in Heliopolis,""A Triptych, Unraveled"
• Pirate's Alley Faulkner Prize Finalist (1999): "Raoucheh"
• Linden Lane Magazine's English Poetry Prize Winner (1994):"Encounters," "Vanishing Shadow," "I Haven't Written a Poem in a Long Time"
• Negative Capability's Eve of St. Agnes Award Finalist (1994): "A Glimpse of Fall"
• Negative Capability's Eve of St. Agnes Award Finalist (1993): "To Henriette"
• Negative Capability's Eve of St. Agnes Award Finalist (1992): "That Day in Heliopolis"
• Robert Whiting Awards Finalists (1990): "Transience," "Raindrops" "The Communion"
• Negative Capability's Eve of St. Agnes Award Finalists (1989): "Tea at Heliopolis," "The White Brass Bed," "Camera Lucida"
• Linden Lane Magazine's English Poetry Prize, Third place (1989): "Waiting for Marie"
• Linden Lane Magazine's English Poetry Prize Finalist (1987):"Immured," "Dive."
• Journal Français d'Amérique Concours de Poèmes de Noël, Second place (1986): "Al Milad"

Fiction

• Letras Femeninas Premio Victoria Urbano Winner (2007): "Noor el Kamar"
• New Voices Contest Honorable Mention (1993): "Mariam"
• New Voices Contest Honorable Mention (1992): "Anemones Fingers"

Grants

• All-University Research & Creative Scholar Fellowship Award Western Michigan University (2006).
• Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship Award Western Michigan University (2006).
• Graduate Research Scholar & Creative Writing Award WMU Spanish Department (2006).
• Graduate Research Scholar & Creative Writing Award WMU Languages & Linguistics Department (1993).