Naim Kattan

Naim Kattan is a novelist, essayist, and critic, having written more than 30 books of poetry, essays, and fiction translated into several languages. His honors include the France-Canada Prize, France’s prestigious Legion d’Honneur, the Order of Canada, the Ordre du Québec, and the J. I. Segal Award for Literature. He studied at the University of Baghdad and the Sorbonne in Paris before immigrating to Montréal, where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Literary Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Through the Canadian-Jewish Congress, he founded the Bulletin du Cercle juif, a newspaper for the French-speaking Jewish community, and wrote a literary column in Le Devoir. He also headed the writing and publishing division of the Canada Council for the Arts Writing and Publication program for almost 25 years.