Jokha Alharthi
Jokha Alharthi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1978 (age 45–46) |
| Nationality | Omani |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation(s) | Writer and academic |
| Known for | Man Booker International Prize 2019 |
| Notable work | Celestial Bodies |
| Website | jokha |
Jokha Alharthi (Arabic: جوخة الحارثي), also spelt al-Harthi, is an Omani writer and academic, known for winning the Man Booker International Prize in 2019 for her novel Sayyidat al-Qamar (Arabic: سيدات القمر), published in English under the title Celestial Bodies. Alharthi is the first Arab author to win the Man Booker International Prize. She has written four novels in Arabic, two of which have been translated into English.
Biography
[edit]Born in 1978,[1] Alharthi was educated in Oman and in the United Kingdom. She obtained her PhD in classical Arabic literature from the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2011.[2] In 2010, Alharthi was offered a professorship in classical Arabic literature at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman. As of 2021, she is an associate professor.[3][4] Alharti has three children.[5]
Alharthi has published three collections of short stories, three children's books, and four novels (Manamat, Sayyidat al-Qamar, Narinjah, and Harir al-Ghazala).[6] She has also authored academic works. Her work has been translated into English, Serbian, Korean, Italian, and German and published in Banipal magazine.[7] Alharthi won the Sultan Qaboos Award for Culture, Arts and Literature for her novel Narinjah (Bitter Orange) in 2016.
Sayyidat al-Qamar was shortlisted for the Zayed Award in 2011. An English translation by Marilyn Booth was published in the UK by Sandstone Press in June 2018 under the title Celestial Bodies, and won the Man Booker International Prize in 2019.[8] Sayyidat el-Qamar was the first work by an Arabic-language writer to be awarded the Man Booker International Prize, and the first novel by an Omani woman to appear in English translation. [9] The judges heralded the book as "a richly imagined, engaging and poetic insight into a society in transition and into lives previously obscured."[10] As of 2020, translation rights to Sayyidat el-Qamar have been sold in Azerbaijani, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, English, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sinhalese, Slovenian, Swedish, and Turkish.
Alharthi's novel Narinjah, also translated by Marilyn Booth, was published in English under the title Bitter Orange Tree.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Debnath |first=Sayari |title=Former International Booker winner Jokha Alharthi’s latest novel leaves a bittersweet aftertaste |url=https://scroll.in/article/1025254/former-international-booker-w
Bibliography
[edit]- Manamat (Beirut: Lebanon: al-Mu'assassah al- 'Arabiyah li al-Dirasat wa al-Nashr, 2004).
- Sayyidat al-Qamar (Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Ādāb, 2010). Celestial Bodies, trans. Marilyn Booth (Scotland: Sandstone Press, 2018).
- Narinjah (Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Ādāb, 2016). Bitter Orange Tree, trans. Marilyn Booth (New York: Catapult, 2022).
- Harir al-Ghazala (Beirut, Lebanon: Dār al-Ādāb, 2021).
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Jokha Alharthi: 'A lot of women are really strong, even though they are slaves'". the Guardian. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ "Jokha Alharthi". The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ "College of Arts and Social Science > Departments > Arabic Language and Literature". www.squ.edu.om. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ The Tanjara blog, 24 October 2011.
- ^ "Jokha Alharthi: 'It is dangerous to see fiction as documentation'". Financial Times. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ Author's website Archived 28 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Profile in Banipal website. Archived 13 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Women dominate Man Booker International prize 2019 shortlist". The Irish Times. 9 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
- ^ Silcox, Beejay (21 October 2019). "The First Arabic Novel to Win the International Booker Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
- ^ "Man Booker International Prize 2019 winner announced". The Man Booker Prize. 31 May 2019. Archived from the original on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
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