Nadia Mohammad Ali Hamade (July 8, 1935 – June 20, 1983) was a Lebanese

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

poet, who authored numerous volumes of poetry.

Early life

Nadia Mohammad Ali Hamadeh was born in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

in 1935, to a

Lebanese Druze Lebanese Druze ( ar, دروز لبنان, durūz lubnān) are Lebanese people who are Druze. The Druze faith is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, and an ethnoreligious esoteric group originating from the Near East who self identify as ...

father, Mohammed Ali Hamadeh, who was a diplomat and writer, and a French mother. She grew up as bilingual in the presence of two cultures. Her brother, Marwan Hamadeh, is a politician, and another brother, Ali Hamadeh, is a journalist at '' An Nahar'' and Future TV.

Education

Nadia Tueni was educated in French schools in Lebanon and Greece. She attended Ecole des Soeurs de Besançon, then La Mission Laïque Française. She received her secondary education at the Lycée Français in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

where her father was

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

of Lebanon. She received her law degree at the

Université Saint-Joseph Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...

. However, there is another report stating that she attended the Université Saint-Joseph, but could not complete her study there due to her marriage in 1954.

Career

Tueni published her first book of poems, ''Les Textes Blonds'', in 1963. She worked as the literary editor of the Lebanese French-language newspaper, ''Le Jour'', in 1967 and contributed to various Arabic and French publications.

Personal life

She married

Ghassan Tueni Ghassan Tueni ( ar, غسان تويني‎; 5 January 1926 – 8 June 2012) was a veteran Lebanese journalist, politician and diplomat who headed ''An Nahar'', one of the Arab World's leading newspapers. He was often referred to as the "Dean ...

, the publisher of '' An Nahar'' and doyen of the Lebanese press, in 1953 in a civil marriage ceremony. They had three children, all of whom would predecease their father, who long outlived her. Her son,

Gebran Tueni Gebran Ghassan Tueni ( ar, جبران تويني; 15 September 1957 – 12 December 2005) was a Lebanese politician and the former editor and publisher of daily paper ''An Nahar'', established by his grandfather, also named Gebran Tueni, i ...

, a journalist and politician, was assassinated in 2005. Another son, Makram, was 21 when he died in a car accident in Paris in 1987. A daughter, Nayla, who was born in 1955 died of cancer at age 7. Her death deeply affected Nadia and led her to compose her first collection: ''Les Textes Blonds'', which was published in 1963. In 1967, she became a literary editor at ''Le Jour,'' where she contributed to various Arabic and French publications. She also has a brother, the minister and deputy Marwan Hamade and a step brother, a journalist in An Nahar daily newspaper, Ali Hamade. She describes her country, Lebanon, in ''Poems of Love and War'' (2006:xxxv) as follows: "I belong to a country that commits suicide every day while it is being assassinated. As a matter of fact, I belong to a country that died several times. Why should I not die too of the gnawing, ugly, slow, and vicious death, of this Lebanese death?"

Death

Nadia Tueni died in Beit Meri near Beirut in 1983 after an 18-year battle with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. She was 47.

Awards

She received several awards during her lifetime, including the Prix de l'

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, the

Order of La Pléiade The Order of La Pléiade (; ) is an honorary order of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. It recognizes people who particularly distinguished themselves in the service of its ideals of cooperation and friendship, promoting the rol ...

, and the Prix Said Akl.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tueni, Nadia 1935 births 1983 deaths Lebanese women poets Deaths from cancer in Lebanon 20th-century Lebanese women writers 20th-century Lebanese poets Nadia 21st-century Lebanese poets 21st-century Lebanese women writers