Success stories of Palestinian achievers from all over the world

Salma Khadra Jayyusi

Personal Info

  • Country of residence: Palestine
  • Gender: Female
  • Born in: 1926
  • Age: 95
  • Curriculum vitae :

Information

Salma Sobhi Al-Khadra Al-Jayousi is a Palestinian writer, poet, critic and academic translator. She was born in 1928 to a Palestinian father and a Lebanese mother in Safed, Palestine. I grew up in the city of Acre and in Jerusalem. She grew up in Palestine, after the 1948 Nakba, she lived in Jordan. She studied high school at the German Schmidt College in Jerusalem, then studied Arabic and English literature at the American University of Beirut and obtained a doctorate in Arabic literature from the University of London. After graduating from London in 1970, she taught Arabic literature in many Arab and foreign universities “Khartoum, Algeria, Constantine, Utah in the United States of America, and then at the University of Michigan, Washington, Texas.” She traveled with her Jordanian diplomatic husband to a number of Arab and European countries She established a major project that introduces Arab culture to the West. In 1980, she established the Prota Project for translation, and the transfer of Arab culture to the Anglo-Saxon world. “Prota” produced encyclopedias, books on Arab-Islamic civilization, novels, plays, popular biographies, and others. And she got involved in the debate that revolved around renewal in Arabic poetry among big names, including Adonis, Muhammad Al-Maghut, Badr Shaker Al-Sayyab, Nazik Al-Malaika, Salah Abdel-Sabour and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra. She published her poetry in many Arab magazines.

Regarding poetic writing, Salma adopted a diverse and tolerant stance, as she responded to some stance that imposes an aesthetic form in poetry: “Issuing absolute judgments in art is a very dangerous issue, but we know that any revolution is capable of pushing its heroes to the maximum limits. Poetry weights are not an easy and accessible issue for everyone, and many poets are not able to own and master them. But, on the other hand, nothing should prevent them from expressing themselves in the only medium they have left: prose. It is impoverished for any art to limit the space of its expression.”

“Issuing absolute judgments in art is a very dangerous issue, but we know that any revolution is capable of pushing its heroes to the limits. Poetry weights are not an easy and accessible issue for everyone, and many poets are not able to own and master them. But, on the other hand, nothing should prevent them from expressing themselves in the only medium they have left: prose. It is impoverished for any art to limit the space of its expression.”

 

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Achievements and Awards

2020, the Cultural Personality of the Year award for the 14th session of the "Sheikh Zayed Book Award", confirming the presence of the Palestinian intellectual in general and women in particular, in cultural forums
2007 Cultural and Scientific Achievement Award, Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation
2006 Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Award
1991 Palestinian American Women's Union Medal for Distinguished National Service
1990 Jerusalem Medal for Literary Achievement,

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