Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Najma Khalil Habib is a Palestinian writer who holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Sydney in Australia. She also received a scholarship from the Australian Council for the Arts at one point, the Gibran Khalil Gibran International Award issued by the Arab Heritage Revival Association in Australia, and a certificate of appreciation from the General Federation of Palestinian Workers, Australia branch.
Najma Khalil Habib has published a number of books and novels, perhaps the most prominent of which is the book “Visions of Exile and Return in the Palestinian Arab Novel,” which was published in 2014, in addition to the book “From Australia: Contemporary Literary Faces,” which was published in 2006, and the novel “A Spring That Did Not Blossom” in 2003, as well as the novel “And the Sons Are Teething,” which was published in 2001, in addition to her first famous work, a book entitled “The Human Model in the Literature of Ghassan Kanafani,” which was published in 1999.
Early life and education
Najma Khalil Habib was born in the city of Haifa , Palestine, in 1946 to parents from the village of Kafr Bir’im, Safad District, but she grew up in the suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, and studied in its schools and universities. She also began writing at an early age in a number of Lebanese newspapers, such as Al-Nasiriyah, Al-Adab, Al-Hawadeth, and Al-Muharrir, as well as the political magazine Ru’yati.
Najma Khalil Habib lived through the Lebanese war, then embarked on her literary project when she traveled to Australia, where she became involved in the Arab cultural scene. She worked as an editor-in-chief of the cultural quarterly Jusoor and contributed to most of the Arab newspapers published in Australia. Najma Khalil Habib obtained a BA in Literature from the Arab University in Beirut in 1970, and also obtained a Master’s degree in Literature from the Lebanese University in Beirut in 1991. She traveled to Australia, where she has lived with her family since 1991.
Career
the beginning
Najma Khalil Habib has written many critical studies and research papers that have been published in cultural magazines and periodicals in different parts of the world, such as: Al-Karmel (Palestine), the cultural quarterly Jusour (Australia), Tabyun (Qatar), An-Najah University Journal for Scientific Research (Nablus), and Al-Kalima electronic magazine, in addition to many articles and stories in local newspapers and websites. Habib also has some contributions in English that have been published in: Jusour (in English : Joussour ), Nebula ( in English : Nebula ), and Al-Mashreq ( in English : Al-Mashreq ).
She contributed in the field of stories, criticism and research to Arab newspapers operating in Australia and other diaspora, then worked for a time as editor-in-chief of Bridges magazine, and worked as director of the office of the Arab newspaper Al-Hayat in Sydney, and moved to occupy the position of teacher of Arabic language and literature at the University of Sydney. Najma won the New South Wales Higher Arts Council Scholarship for the year 2003 for a book entitled “Contemporary Australian Literary Faces.”
In her literary and academic project, Najma Habib focuses on the values of truth, goodness, justice and freedom, such as the Palestinian cause , women and crushed childhood in a world of wars and deprivation. Najma wrote a number of stories in this context, perhaps the most prominent of which are: A Spring That Did Not Blossom, Motherhood That Embarrassed Us, and For Women on Their International Day. She also addressed these topics in many articles, such as: An Angry Cry on International Women’s Day, Ambitious Security for Women on Their International Day, and others.
Releases
Najma Khalil Habib published her famous and first published book in 1999 under the title “The Human Model in Ghassan Kanafani’s Literature” from Bisan Publishing and Distribution House in 176 pages. In it, Najma contradicted the prevailing view that researchers and scholars of Kanafani’s literature were political literature that gained its value from the value of the cause it represented. However, Najma studied and dealt with this literature from a human perspective, searching for the Palestinian cause from this perspective. The second work of the Palestinian writer was the novel “And the Sons Are Teething” also from Bisan Publishing and Distribution House in November 2001 in 160 pages. In it, Najma dealt with the story of a woman who was on her way to a public café in the city, then she notices how boring and monotonous her life is, then she decides at a moment in time to turn back the clock and get out of this boredom and tedium, so she sets off as she thought she should do during her teenage years.
“A Spring That Did Not Blossom” is the third work of the Palestinian writer, and this time it was published by the Arab Center for Research and Documentation in October 2003 in 214 pages. In this work, Najma, as she says, sided with the simpletons in every sense of the word, as she dealt with the story of Maryam, the mother who is infatuated with her only son, and Nu’man, the martyr who is shy of his ideas that distort his heroism, as well as the story of Hanan, who is torn between glorifying her father’s heroism and condemning him, in addition to the story of Amer, who is torn between his family duty and his national ambitions. The writer’s most extensive work was the book “From Australia: Contemporary Literary Faces,” which was published by the Arab Scientific Publishers in 2006 in 430 pages. Najma Khalil Habib moved from studying Ghassan Kanafani’s literature to studying world literature, specifically Australian literature, where she presented in this book – as stated in the title – the most prominent contemporary literary figures in the continent of Australia, where the writer has settled for some time.
In 2014, the author published another book, “Visions of Exile and Return in the Palestinian Arab Novel,” in the section on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the liberation of Jerusalem and Palestine, published by the Arab Institute for Studies and Publishing, in 376 pages. In this book, Najma Khalil Habib presented a study examining visions of exile and return in the Palestinian Arab novel, which took its models from different diaspora environments and multiple intellectual affiliations, to show that Palestinians, regardless of their ideological, cultural, and social doctrines—and whether they are in the diaspora, at home, or under occupation—all consider their situation to be temporary. In this book—which some critics considered a sound study—Najma confirmed the existence of a firm belief in the right of all Palestinians to reclaim the home, field, village, and city that were stolen from them in both occupations. Najma divided this book - or study - into six chapters that examine the different visions of the topics of exile and return. In the first chapter, she discussed what she called the inciting vision of resistance in Ghassan Kanafani’s literature, while in the second chapter she spoke about the future apostolic vision in Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s literature. In the third chapter, she focused on a vision that interrogates identity, and she devoted the fourth chapter to a revolutionary societal vision, while the fifth chapter spoke about Yahya Yakhlif’s institutional vision, and the sixth chapter targeted the characteristic of the combat experience.
Najma collaborated with the Arab Scientific Publishers to publish her book “Critical Readings in Poetry and Novels” which was published in 2017 in 421 pages. In it, she presented the results of a long experience in the field of criticism based on comparison, balance, discussion and correction. The book included a group of visions and studies in the fields of Arabic literary texts. The writer also reviewed selections and anthologies from poetry and narrative texts. In this book, Najma focused on the critical reading of some poetic works, some works in the novel, story and autobiography, as well as some works in thought and society. The latest work of the Palestinian writer was published by the same house under the title “My Grandmother Loses the Dream and Other Stories” in 2018 in 190 pages. In this book, Najma gave the leading role to “the grandmother,” and focused on the subject of dreams, as she spoke about what she described as random memory, so she recalled the time of the Palestinian renaissance in literature with Mahmoud Darwish and the time of the revolution with Abu Ammar and others, in addition to the time of setback, as she called it, meaning the clashes between the Fatah and Hamas movements and the massacre in Beit Hanoun, as well as the invasion of Beirut, the militia war, and others. In the third section of the book, Najma narrates the concerns of the writer, writing, the author’s journalistic experience, and memories with those she describes as friends of yesterday, while the fourth and final section of the collection is entitled “Emotions,” and in it the writer follows the style of (the story-poem), where the heroine in each poem becomes the narrator and the central structural tool in the poem.
List of her works
This is a list of the most prominent works of the Palestinian writer Najma Khalil Habib:
Visions of Exile and Return in the Palestinian Arab Novel (2014)
From Australia: Contemporary Literary Faces (2006)
Spring That Never Bloomed (2003)
And the children are teething (2001)
The Human Model in Ghassan Kanafani's Literature (1999)
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To