Wafa Ghorbel

Wafa Ghorbel is a French-Tunisian writer, academic and singer-lyricist. Born 1975 in Sfax, she was awarded her doctorate from the Sorbonne in 2004 for her thesis entitled Le Mal dans l’oeuvre romanesque de Georges Bataille. She has published numerous scholarly articles on Bataille and Marguerite Duras.

Le Jasmin noir (2016), Ghorbel’s first novel, won her the Prix Découverte dans le cadre des Comar d’or 2016. In 2017, Le Tango de la déesse des dunes, a sequel to her first novel, appeared and was featured at the Tunis International Book Fair and the Center for Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women (CREDIF). In 2018, she presided over the Choix Goncourt of Tunisia with Virginie Despentes. In 2019, she published her own translation, in literary Arabic, of Le Jasmin noir. In 2020, she was juror for the Francophone Pen Prize.

Besides publishing and literary endeavors, Ghorbel sings, composes and designs musical projects. She collaborated with French-Lebanese pianist Elie Malouf on a project entitled Rhapsodie turquoise, and then with the French jazzman Édouard Bineau on a project titled Oriental Jazz Standards which revolves around revisited standards by Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, George Gershwin and Chet Baker.

Books

Isabelle Chol et Wafa Ghorbel, L’Hétérogène dans les littératures de langue française, Paris, L’Harmattan, coll. « Critiques littéraires », 2015.

Le Jasmin noir, Tunis, Maison tunisienne du livre, 2016.

Le Tango de la déesse des dunes, Tunis, Maison tunisienne du livre, 2017.

Awards

Prix Découverte des Comar d’or for Le Jasmin noir, 2016

Prix de la Fête annuelle des écrivains de la région de Sfax for Le Jasmin noir, 2016

Prix Béchir-Khraïef de création littéraire dans le roman – prix de la Foire internationale du livre de Tunis for Le Tango de la déesse des dunes, 2018

Prix Zoubeida-Bchir – prix de la création littéraire en langue française du CREDIF for Le Tango de la déesse des dunes, 2018

Links

Wafa Ghorbel Youtube channel