Hoda Barakat (Arabic: هدى بركات; born 1952) is a Lebanese novelist. She lived most of her early life in Beirut before moving to Paris, where she now resides. She has published six novels, two plays, a book of short stories, and a book of memoirs.^[1] Her works are originally written in Arabic and have been translated into English, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Romanian, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese,^[2][3] and Greek.^[4]

Her work often explores themes of trauma and war; three of her early novels are narrated by male characters living in the margins of society during the Lebanese civil war.^[5]

Barakat was raised in the Maronite Christian town of Bsharré, Lebanon. After moving to Beirut, Barakat studied French Literature at the Lebanese University, from which she graduated in 1975.^[6] In 1975 and 1976, she lived in Paris, where she worked towards a PhD, but she decided to return home when the Lebanese Civil War started.^{[citation needed]} During this period, she worked as a teacher, translator, and journalist. In 1985, she released her first formal publication, a collection of short stories called Za'irat ("Women Visitors").^{[citation needed]}

She moved back to Paris in 1989 and has lived there ever since, publishing her remaining works from Paris, including Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of Laughter, 1990) and Ahl el-Hawa (People of Love, 1993), among others. In addition to writing, she has also worked in radio broadcasting.^[6]

In 2004, she visited the United Kingdom on the first Banipal Live UK tour.^[7] Between 2010 and 2011, she was appointed as a fellow^[8] in Nantes Institute for Advanced Study Foundation.^{[citation needed]} In fall 2013, Barakat was appointed the first Arabic Scholar in Residence at the University of Texas at Austin Middle Eastern Studies Program.^[9] She was also recently visiting professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Dartmouth College and Artist in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University.^[10][11]

She married the poet Mohammad El Abdallah (Arabic: محمد العبدالله), whom she met in college.^[12] She acquired French nationality by naturalization on 24 March 1998.^[13]

• The Stone of Laughter, Interlink Books, New York, 1995, ISBN 9781566561976
• The Tiller of Waters, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, 2001, ISBN 9789774246906
• Disciples of Passion, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, 2005, ISBN 9780815608332
• Hoda Barakat's Sayyidi wa habibi: the authorized abridged edition for students of Arabic, Georgetown University Press, Washington DC, 2013, ISBN 9781626160026
• Voices of the Lost, Oneworld, London, 2021 ISBN 9781786077226

Barakat's first work Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of Laughter), which is the first Arabic work to have a gay man as its main character, won the Al-Naqid prize.

Her third novel, Harit al-miyah (The Tiller of Waters), won the 2001 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.^[4]

Her 2019 novel Bareed Al-Layl ("The Night Mail") won the 2019 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF); it was thereafter translated into English by Marilyn Booth and published in English under the title Voices of the Lost.^[14] Barakat is the second woman to have ever won the IPAF.^[1] She was previously longlisted for the IPAF in 2013, for her novel Malakoot hadhahi al-ard ("The Kingdom of This Earth").^[15]

She was decorated with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002 and the Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite in 2008.^[16][1]

• An excerpt of the 2021 English translation of Bareed Al-Layl/Voices of the Lost available on Literary Hub

• Profile at Al-Ahram