I Killed Scheherazade

In this provocative book Joumana Haddad uses the format of the political pamphlet to describe the liberating impact of literature on her life. She tells of reading the Marquis de Sade at twelve, of her metamorphosis into an award-winning poet, and reflects upon how this has shaped her as an Arab woman, as a writer and as a magazine editor. Joumana challenges prevalent notions of identity and womanhood in the Middle East and speaks of how she came to create the Arab world’s first erotic literary magazine, Jasad (Body), that has earned her both admiration and censure. Fiery and candid, I Killed Scheherazade is a provocative exploration of what it means to be an ‘Arab woman’ today.

Author Biography

Born in 1970 in Beirut, Joumana Haddad is a poet, literary translator, magazine publisher and journalist. She has published several widely acclaimed poetry collections, four of which have been translated into French, German, Spanish and Italian. Joumana is the cultural editor for the prestigious an-Nahar newspaper, as well as the administrator of the International Prize of Arabic Fiction (the ‘Arab Booker’). Author location: Beirut, Lebanon