Etel Adnan

“Etel Adnan: (1925-2021) Lebanese poet. Adnan’s works record the devastation of Beirut by civil war. Adnan is a Lebanese Christian who writes in both Arabic and French, and much of her work has been translated into English. Her seven volumes of poetry include Arab Apocalypse (1980) and From A to Z (1982). She renders the effects of the war in fragmentary poems that are formed from shards of language, often punctuated by abstract drawings, barring the reader from assembling a coherent narrative. Her one novel, Sitt Marie Rose (1982), also resists a linear reading: it is told not only from the perspective of its female protagonist, a Christian supporter of the Palestinian resistance, but also from that of the Phalangist Christians who hold her hostage. Adnan’s manipulation of the point deftly illustrates the complexities of the Lebanese political crisis.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.