Najat El Hachmi

Najat El Hachmi
Born (1979-06-02) June 2, 1979
Nador, Morocco
Language Spanish, Arabic, Berber, Catalan
Nationality Moroccan - Spanish

Najat El Hachmi (born in Morocco on July 2, 1979) is a Moroccan-Spanish writer.[1]

Life

At the age of 8 she immigrated with her family to Catalonia, Spain. El Hachmi studied Arab literature at the University of Barcelona and currently resides in Granollers. She began writing when she was twelve years old and has continued ever since, first as entertainment, and later as a means to express concerns or to reflect and re-create her own reality, in the (at least) two cultures to which she belongs.

Career

Her first book, Jo també sóc catalana (I am also Catalan, 2004), was strictly autobiographical, dealing with the issue of identity, and the growth of her sense of belonging to her new country. In 2005, she participated in an event sponsored by the European Institute of the Mediterranean, along with other Catalan writers of foreign descent, including Matthew Tree, Salah Jamal, Laila Karrouch and Mohamed Chaib. During the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2007, where Catalan culture was the featured guest of honour, she traveled to various German cities to participate in conferences in which she offered her perspective on contemporary Catalan literature. El Hachmi has made frequent appearances in the media, including Catalunya Radio, and the newspaper Vanguardia.

In 2008, she won one of the most prestigious award in Catalan letters, the Ramon Llull prize, for her novel L'últim patriarca (The Last Patriarch). The novel tells the story of a Moroccan who immigrates to Spain, a sometimes despotic patriarch who enters into conflict with his daughter, who breaks with the traditional values of the old country to adapt to the new, modern culture in which she finds herself.

Works

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Bajak, Frank (22 January 2010). "Literature lovers head to Cartagena for Hay Festival". USA Today. Retrieved 24 January 2011.

CRAMERI, Kathryn (2014): “Hybridity and Catalonia Linguistic Borders: the Case of Najat El Hachmi”, in Flocel SABATÉ (ed.) Hybrid Identities. An interdisciplinary approach to the roots of present. Peter Lang, s/p.

PHILLIPPS, Haarlson y Philip LEVINE (2012): “The Word Hunter: Interview with Najat el Hachmi”, en ID. The best of Barcelona INK, Barcelona, pp. 106-108.

POMAR-AMER, Miquel (2014): "Voices emerging from the border. A reading of the autobiographies by Najat El Hachmi and Saïd El Kadaoui as political interventions", PLANETA LITERATUR. JOURNAL OF GLOBAL LITERARY STUDIES 1/2014, 33-52, online, http://www.planeta-literatur.com/uploads/2/0/4/9/20493194/pl_1_2014_33_52.pdf

SONG, Rosi H. (2014): “Narrating identity in Najat El Hachmi’s L’últim patriarca”, en AIELLO, Lucia, Joy CHARNLEY y Mariangela PALLADINO (eds.), Displaced women. Multilingual Narratives of Migration in Europe. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

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