Liana Badr

1950 -

Acclaimed Palestinian author.

Born in Jerusalem, educated in Jericho, Amman, and Beirut, Liana Badr worked for a magazine and for refugee organizations in Jordan and Lebanon. Her first novel, A Compass for the Sunflower (1979), published in Beirut, was acclaimed for its lyrical style and broke the dominance of male characters in Palestinian writing. Upon the Israeli invasion of 1982, she fled to Damascus, marrying activist Yasir Abd Rabbo, future negotiator of the Oslo Accords, and moving with him to Tunis and Amman. During that time she published two novels (The Eye of the Mirror [1991] and Stars of Jericho [1993]), four collections of short stories and novellas (Stories of Love and Pursuit [1983], Balcony over the Fakahani [1983], I Want the Day [1991], and Golden Hell [1993]) and five children's books. Returning to Palestine in 1994, she published an interview-memoir (Fadwa Tuqan [1996]) and an anthology of poetry, directed three documentaries (Fadwa, A Tale of a Palestinian Poetess [1999], Zaytunat [2000], and Green Bird [2002]), and wrote the script for another film (Rana's Wedding [2002]). Badr's work focuses on Palestinians, particularly women, in war, in exile, and under military rule. She heads the Cinema and Audiovisual Department at the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Culture, and is a founding editor of the ministry's periodical, Dafatir Thaqafiyya.

Bibliography

Jayyusi, Salma Khadra. Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

— GEORGE R. WILKES