Ghada al-Samman

In 1993 she caused a scene in the literary and political arenas when she published a collection of love letters written to her by Ghassan Kanafani in the sixties when she had a love affair with him, which was no secret at the time. She was condemned for publishing them by some claiming that her intention was to smear the late writer's reputation and/or to negatively affect the Palestinian Cause.

She has also written a few criticism books and translated some of her works to several worldwide languages. Ghada has been living in Paris since the mid-1980s and regularly writes in an Arabic magazine published in London. She refuses any invitations for TV interviews since she had a bad experience when she was interviewed in Cairo and found out that the interviewer had not read any of her works.

After the publication of two more novels, “Beirut Nightmares" (Arabic: كوابيس بيروت) in 1977, which describes life in civil-war-torn Beirut in the mid-Seventies, and “The Eve of Billion” (Arabic: ليلة المليار) in 1986, she was referred to as the most prominent modern Arab writer by some critics.

In 1973 she published her fourth collection, “The Departure of Old Ports” (Arabic: رحيل المرافئ القديمة), considered by some critiques one of the most important of her works. In this collection of short stories she described in a literary fashion the dilemma of the Arab intellectual of the time and the conflict between his/her thought and actions. She published her first novel, “Beirut 75” (Arabic: بيروت 75) around the end of 1974. The novel describes the complex social problems in Beirut and prophesied the upcoming turmoil a few months before the civil war broke out in Lebanon.

The Six-Day War had a shock effect on her as it did on many of her generation, this was evident in her famous article “I Carry My Shame to London” (Arabic: احمل عاري إلى لندن), after that she did not publish any books for six years but her journalistic articles became closer to the social reality and made her popular. The articles she wrote during that period became the source of some of her later publications. In 1969 she joined the weekly news magazine of Salim Lawzi, Al Hawadeth, as a correspondent.

In Beirut she worked as a journalist and in 1965 she published her second collection “No Sea in Beirut” (Arabic: لا بحر في بيروت) in which the effect of her new, now wider experiences are evident. She then traveled around Europe working as a correspondent and in 1966 published her third collection “Foreigners’ Nights” (Arabic: ليل الغرباء) reflecting her experiences.

She graduated from the Syrian University in 1963 with a BA in English Literature and left to Beirut to earn her master's degree in Theatre from American University of Beirut; since then she had not returned to Damascus.

She published her first book of short stories “Your Eyes Are My Destiny” (Arabic: عيناك قدري) in 1962 which was received reasonably well. However, she was lumped at the time with other traditional feminine writers. Her later publications took her out of the tight range of feminine and love novels to much wider social, feminist and philosophical extents.

In the late 1960s Ghada married Bashir Al Daouq, the owner of Dar Al Tali’a publishing house and had her only son, Hazim, which she named after one of her heroes in “Foreigners' Nights”. She later made her own publishing house and re-published most of her books, she also gathered all her articles in a series she called “The Unfinished Works” (Arabic: الأعمال غير الكاملة), up to date she has published fifteen books of it, nine of them are poetry collections. She has stored her unpublished works including many letters in a Swiss bank, which she promises to publish “when the time is right”.

It is believed that some of her letters may reveal some information about some prominent Palestinian writers and poets during the 1960s, of the people her name was linked with are: Nasser Eddin Al-Nashashibi, the journalist and Kamal Nasir, the late poet.

Ghadah Al-Samman (Arabic: غادة السمّان; born 1942) is a Syrian writer, journalist and novelist born in Damascus in 1942 to a prominent and conservative Damascene family. Her father was Ahmed Al-Samman, a president of the Syrian University. She is remotely related to poet Nizar Qabbani. She was deeply influenced by him since her mother died at a very young age.