© Hyam Yared
Biography
Hyam Yared is a Lebanese writer born in Beirut, is renowned for her contributions to French literature. Her debut collection of poems, Reflets de lune (Dar An-Nahar, 2001), achieved significant recognition by winning the gold medal at the Jeux de la Francophonie. Her second collection, Blessures de l’eau (Dar An-Nahar, 2004), received numerous accolades and was subsequently published in Canada (Mémoire d’Encrier, 2015). Her collection Esthetique de la prédation (Mémoire d’Encrier, 2013) was recently optioned to be translated into Italian.
Yared’s literary repertoire extends beyond poetry, encompassing several notable novels, including L’armoire des ombres (Sabine Wespieser, 2006: a subversive worldview, capturing societal oppression, stifling freedom in a strange and surreal everyday experience), Sous la tonnelle (Wespieser, 2009, translated into Arabic at Dar el Adab in 2013: discovery of the complex and mysterious history of a grandmother intertwined with the main character’s obsessions about passion, desire, and violence.), La malédiction (Équateurs, 2012: “Metoo” before its time), Tout est halluciné (Fayard, 2016: challenge of reconstructing a woman from scratch and the memory of a torn people that finds its way), Nos longues années en tant que filles (Flammarion, 2020: exploration of gender deconstruction through two characters: a transgender person and a character practicing BDSM), and Implosions (Équateurs, 2021: amidst the Beirut bombing aftermath, the narrator finds herself under the therapist’s desk, embodying the external devastation and the crumbling of her relationship).
Her remarkable talent was also acknowledged in the English-speaking world when her work was featured in the Beirut Noir collection published by Akashic in 2015. Additionally, Yared plays a pivotal role in promoting literature and intellectual freedom as the founder and president of the Lebanese PEN Centre.
Information
Novels:
Implosions (Novel, French, 2021, rights with éditions Les Equateurs)
Nos longues années en tant que filles (Novel, French, 2020, rights with éditions Flammarion)
Tout est halluciné (Novel, French, 2016, rights with éditions Fayard & Ægitna)
La malédiction (Novel French, 2012, rights with éditions Les Equateurs)
Sous la tonnelle (Novel, French, 2009, rights with éditions Sabine Wespieser)
L’armoire des ombres (Novel, French, 2006, rights with éditions Sabine Wespieser)
Poetry:
Esthetique de la prédation (Mémoire d’Encrier, 2013)
Blessures de l’eau (Dar An-Nahar, 2004, Mémoire d’Encrier, 2015)
Reflets de lune (Dar An-Nahar, 2001)