Hoda Barakat

Hoda Barakat (Arabic: هدى بركات‎‎) (born 1952) is a Lebanese novelist. Barakat lived much of her life in Beirut and later moved to Paris, where she now resides. Her works are originally written in Arabic and have been translated into many languages, including English, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Dutch, and Greek.

Barakat was raised in the Maronite Christian town of Bsharré, Lebanon, where she lived until she moved to Beirut. In Beirut, Barakat studied French Literature at the Lebanese University, from which she graduated in 1975. In 1975 and 1976, she lived in Paris where she worked on a PhD, but decided to return home when the Lebanese Civil War started. During this period she worked as a teacher, translator, and journalist. Barakat has set all of her published works during this period of war. In 1985 she published her first work, a collection of short stories called Za'irat ("Women Visitors"). She moved back to Paris in 1989 and has lived there ever since. There she published a series of major works including Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of Laughter, 1990) and Ahl el-Hawa (People of Love, 1993). In 2004, she visited the UK on the first Banipal Live UK tour.

During year 2010-2011, Hoda Barakat was appointed as a fellow in Nantes Institute for Advanced Study Foundation

In fall 2013, Barakat was appointed the first Arabic Scholar in Residence at the University of Texas at Austin Middle Eastern Studies Program.

• The Stone of Laughter, Interlink Books, New York, 1995, ISBN 9781566561976
• The Tiller of Waters, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 2001, ISBN 9789774246906
• Disciples of Passion, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, 2005, ISBN 9780815608332
• Hoda Barakat's Sayyidi wa habibi: the authorized abridged edition for students of Arabic, Georgetown University Press, Washington DC, 2013, ISBN 9781626160026

Her first work Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of Laughter), which is the first Arabic work to have a homosexual man as its main character, won the Al-Naqid prize. Her third novel, Harit al-miyah (The Tiller of Waters), won the 2001 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.

She was decorated with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite National in 2008.