Najat El Hachmi Explained

Najat El Hachmi
Birth Date:2 June 1979
Birth Place:Beni Sidel, Morocco
Language:Spanish, Arabic, Berber, Catalan
Nationality:Moroccan - Spanish

Najat El Hachmi (born July 2, 1979) is a Moroccan-Spanish writer based in Catalonia. She holds a degree in Arabic Studies from the University of Barcelona. She is the author of a personal essay on her bicultural identity, and three previous novels, the first of which earned her the 2008 Ramon Llull Prize, the 2009 Prix Ulysse, and was a finalist for the 2009 Prix Méditerranée Étranger.[1]

Life

El Hachmi was born in Beni Sidel,[2] province of Nador. 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 acquired the Spanish nationality in 2006.[3]

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.[4]

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 Award, 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.[5]

Works

Awards

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Literature lovers head to Cartagena for Hay Festival. Bajak. Frank. 22 January 2010. USA Today. 24 January 2011.
  2. Web site: Najat El Hachmi: "Con el sentimiento de culpa de las mujeres podríamos asfaltar carreteras". Ara. Esther. Vera. 21 February 2021.
  3. Web site: Najat El Hachmi, ganadora del Nadal, una autora que escribe desde dos orillas. La Información. 7 January 2021.
  4. 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.
  5. EVERLY, Kathryn (2014): "Rethinking the Home and Rejecting the Past: A Feminist Reading of Najat El Hachmi's L'últim patriarca", Ambitos Feministas, vol. 4 no.4, pp.45-59.
  6. Web site: Najat El Hachmi gana el 77 Premio Nadal y María Barbal el 53 Premio Josep Pla. La Vanguardia. 7 January 2021. Vanessa. Graell. es.