KHOURY-GHATA, Vénus 1937-

PERSONAL: Born 1937, in Beirut, Lebanon; daughter of an official and a hospital nurse; immigrated to France in 1973; married c. 1957 (divorced, c. 1970), remarried (widowed); children: (first marriage) three; (second marriage) one. Education: College graduate.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Graywolf Press, 2402 University Ave., Ste. 203, Saint Paul, MN 55114.

CAREER: Poet and novelist.

AWARDS, HONORS: Prix Apollinaire, 1980, for Les ombres et leurs cris; Prix Mallarmé, 1987, for Monologue du mort; Grand Prix de la Société des gens de lettres, 1992, for Fables pour un peuple d'argilie; named chevalier, French Légion d'Honneur, 2000; Prix Baie des Anges, 2003, for Le moine, L'Ottoman et la femme du grand argentier.

WRITINGS:

Les inadaptés, Éditions du Rocher (Monaco), 1971.

Au sud du silence (poetry), Librairie Saint-Germain-de-Prés (Paris, France), 1975.

Dialogue à propos d'un Christ ou d'un acrobate, Editeurs Français Réunis (Paris, France), 1975.

Alma, cousue main: ou le Voyage immobile (novel), R. Deforges (Paris, France), 1977.

Les ombres et leurs cris: poèmes, P. Belfound (Paris, France), 1979.

Qui parle au nom du Jasmin, Editeurs Français Réunis (Paris, France), 1980.

Le fils empaillé (novel), P. Belfond (Paris, France), 1980.

Un faux pas du soleil, P. Belfond (Paris, France), 1982.

Vacarme pour une lune morte (novel), Flammarion (Paris, France), 1983.

Les morts n'avaient pas d'ombre (novel), Flammarion (Paris, France), 1984.

Mortemaison (novel; title means "Deadhouse"), Flammarion (Paris, France), 1986.

Monologue du mort, P. Belfond (Paris, France), 1986.

Bayarmine (novel), Flammarion (Paris, France), 1988.

Les fugues d'Olympia, Editionis Ramsay/de Cortanze (Paris, France), 1989.

(Translator) Bagiarmin, "Nea Syora"—A. A. Livane (Athens, Greece), 1991.

La maîtresse du notable (novel), Seghers (paris, France), 1992.

Fables pour un peuple d'argilie, P. Belfond (Paris, France), 1992.

Mon anthologie (title means "My Anthology"), Dar An-Nahar (Beirut, Lebanon), 1993.

Les fiancées du cap Ténès (novel), J.-C. Lattès (Paris, France), 1995.

Le maestra (novel), Actes Sud (Arles, France), 1996.

Anthologie Personnelle: poésie, Actes Sud (Arles, France), 1997.

(Author of text) Baalbek, photography by Laurent Abad, preface by Federico Mayor, Editions Arziates (Paris, France), 1997.

Une maison au bord des larmes (novel), Editions Balland (Paris, France), 1998, translated as A House at the Edge of Tears, Graywolf Press (Saint Paul, MN), 2005

Elle dit; suivi de Les sept brins de chèvrefeuille de la sagesse: poèmes, Editions Balland (Paris, France), 1999 translation by Marilyn Hacker published as She Says, Graywolf Press (Saint Paul, MN), 2001.

La voix des arbres (poetry), Le cherce midi editeur (Paris, France), 1999.

Compassion des pierres: poèmes, La Différence (Paris, France), 2001.

Here There Was Once a Country (poetry), translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker, Oberlin College Press (Oberlin, OH), 2001.

Privilège des morts (novel), Balland (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Paul Chanel Malenfant) Le fleuve, Éditionis Trait d'Union (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2001.

Le moine, l'Ottoman et la femme du grand argentier (novel), Actes Sud (Arles, France), 2003.

Author's poetry has appeared in Ambit, Banpal: Journal of Moderna Arab Literature, Field, Jacket, Metre, Poetry, Shenandoah, Verse, and Manhattan Review.

Author's works have been translated into Italian, Russian, Dutch, German, and Arabic.

SIDELIGHTS: Lebanese-born writer Vénus Khoury-Ghata, who now lives in France, has written numerous novels and volumes of poetry and is noted for her satiric and ironic wit. In her novel Mortemaison the author tells the story of a Lebanese writer who begins to look into the past of her recently dead husband, Luc. After meeting her husband's ex-mistress, the woman travels to Turkey so her daughter can meet her paternal grandmother and so she can learn more about her husband's past. Eventually, the woman embarks on an affair in Paris and can only be consoled in the end by the idea that her husband's memory will only truly live on in her daughter. Writing in World Literature Today, Evelyne Accad noted that novel is "a journey through the night, a liberation from love."

La maîtresse du notable tells the story of the Polish woman Flora who has a child by a Christian husband but ultimately abandons her family to live with her Muslim lover in Lebanon. The move is catastrophic; it increases the bloodshed between two warring factions, destroys the life of Flora's husband and son, and leads to her daughter becoming the target of a sniper. Writing once again in World Literature Today, Accad noted that the novel has "a sensuality close to pornography, a surrealist narrative, unusual and unexpected images, and parody, but also tenderness poetry, despair, anguish, admonition, warning, concern, and a relentless love/hate for a country and society to which she still feel attached."

Khoury-Ghata is as noted for her poetry as she is for her novels. Mon anthologie collects the author's poetry dating back to 1969. It includes poems from collections such as Au sud du silence and Fables pour un peuple d'argilie. In a review in World Literature Today, Michael Bishop commented that, even though many of the poems have "the obsessive presence of death," they keep "a remarkable buoyancy." Another volume of poetry, Compassion des pierres: poèmes, consists of two long poems. As World Literature Today contributor Maryann De Julio noted, "Once again, the imagination of Venus Khoury-Ghata … has the power to take our breath away."

Here There Was Once a Country features three groups, or sequences, of poems and, as noted by De Julio in World Literature Today, "names with extraordinary grace the diverse objects, animals, plants and people that have passed through the poet's experience." Kenyon Review contributor Annie Finch commented that "Khoury-Ghata's book would be worth reading for an of the three sequences; after reading the three together, it seems an extraordinary oversight that this powerful and vital poetry has, apparently, not been translated into English until now."

Khoury-Ghata's collection Elle dit; suivi de Les sept brins de chèvrefeuille de la sagesse: poèmes was also published in English translation as She Says. In this edition, the French and English translations are both included on facing pages. World Literature Today contributor Mechthild Cranston noted that the author "stands outside any single artistic tradition and emerges as one of the most compelling women's voices on the current poetic scene." In a review of She Says, Leslie Schenk noted in World Literature Today that the volume "contains superb poetics and translations almost as superb." Schenk also wrote that Khoury-Ghata "certainly deserves to be better known in the English-speaking world, and this verse collection should go far in doing just that."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

French Review, April, 1985, Danielle Chavy Cooper, review of Vacarme pour une lune morte, pp. 757-759.

Kenyon Review, winter, 2003, Annie Finch, review of Here There Was Once a Country, p. 167.

Midwest Quarterly, autumn, 2002, Richard Holinger, review of Here There Was Once a Country, p. 119.

Women's Review of Books, November, 2003, Carolyne Wright, review of Here There Was Once a Country, p. 16.

World Literature Today, winter, 1987, Evelyne Accad, review of Mortemaison, p. 151; autumn, 1992, Evelyne Accad, review of La maîtresse du notable, p. 771; winter, 1995, Michael Bishop, review of Mon anthologie, p. 96; autumn, 1999, Mecthild Cranston, review of Elle dit, p. 700; winter, 2002, Maryann De Julio, review of Here There Was Once a Country, p. 180; summer-autumn, 2002, Maryann De Julio, review of Compassion des pierres: poèmes, p. 114; September-December, 2004, Leslie Schenk, review of She Says, p. 114.

ONLINE

Pangea.org, http://www.pangea.org/ (August 14, 2002), "Venus Khoury-Ghata."