Abla Farhoud (1945 – December 1, 2021) was a Lebanese-born Canadian writer who lived in Quebec.
Life
Farhoud was born in the village of Ain-Hirsché and came with her family to Montreal in 1951. In her late teens, she became a comedian, performing on Radio-Canada television. She returned to Lebanon with her family in 1965. Then, in 1969, Farhoud went to Paris, where she studied theatre at the Université de Vincennes à Paris. She returned to Quebec in 1973 and earned a master's degree in theatre from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Her play Les filles du 5-10-15¢ was performed at the Festival des francophonies en Limousin [fr] in 1992. Her play La Possession du Prince received the Prix de Théâtre et Liberté from the French Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques. Her writing incorporates Quebec slang "joual", French, colloquial French, colloquial Lebanese-Arabic, English and Arabic.
Her son Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne is a member of the hip hop group Loco Locass.
Selected works
Plays
- Quand j'étais grande (1983), translated into English as When I was grown up by Jill MacDougall
- Les Filles du 5-10-15¢ (1993), translated into English as The Girls from the Five and Ten by Jill MacDougall
- La Possession du prince (1993)
- Jeux de patience (1994), translated into English as Game of Patience by Jill MacDougall
- Quand le vautour danse (1997), translated into English as Birds of Prey by Jill MacDougall
- Les Rues de l'alligator (1998)
- Maudite machine (1999)
Novels
- Le bonheur a la queue glissante (1998), received the Prix France-Québec
- Splendide solitude (2001)
- Le fou d'Omar (2005)
- Le Sourire de la Petite Juive (2011), translated into English as Hutchison Street by Judith Weisz Woodworth (2018)
- Au grand soleil cachez vos filles (2017)
- Le Dernier des snoreaux (2019)
- Havre-Saint-Pierre, pour toujours (2022)
References
- Caroline Montpetit, "La dramaturge et romancière Abla Farhoud n’est plus". Le Devoir, December 3, 2021.
- ^ "Farhoud, Abla" (in French). Infocentre littéraire des écrivains.
- Dahab, F Elizabeth (2010). Voices of Exile in Contemporary Canadian Francophone Literature. pp. 97–100. ISBN 978-0739118795.
- "Telle mère, tel fils". La Presse (in French). May 12, 2012.
- MacDougall, Jill (1990). "When I was grown up". Women & Performance. 9: 120–143. doi:10.1080/07407709008571144.
- Jill MacDougall (translator), "The Girls from the Five and Ten", in Plays by Women: An International Anthology. Book 1, ed. Françoise Kourilsky, Catherine Temerson. New York: UBU Reportory Theater Publications, 1988, p. 103-159.
- Jill MacDougall (translator), "Game of Patience", in Plays by Women: An International Anthology. Book 2, ed. Françoise Kourilsky, Catherine Temerson. New York: UBU Reportory Theater Publications, 1994, p. 37-84. Also published in Anthology of Québec Women's Plays in English Translation. Vol. II (1987-2003), ed. Louise H. Forsyth. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2008 and Canada and the Theatre of War. Vol. II. Contemporary Wars, ed. Donna Coates and Sherrill Grace. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2009.
- "Farhoud, Abla". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.
- 1945 births
- 2021 deaths
- Writers from Quebec
- Canadian women dramatists and playwrights
- Canadian novelists in French
- Canadian women novelists
- Lebanese emigrants to Canada
- 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Canadian novelists
- 20th-century Canadian women writers
- 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- 21st-century Canadian women writers
- Canadian dramatists and playwrights in French