Dr. Nejmeh Khalil Habib

Nejmeh was born in Haifa, Palestine, and was raised in Beirut, Lebanon. She graduated with a BA from the Arab University of Beirut in 1970 and received an MA in Arabic literature from the Lebanese University in 1991. In the same year, she immigrated to Australia. 

In 2003, Nejmeh joined the University of Sydney as a lecturer of Arabic language and literature at both  The Department of Arabic Language and Culture and The Centre for Continuing Education, where she continues to teach. She received her PhD from Sydney University in 2011. 

Nejmeh has published research and writing in numerous academic journals and newspapers, and has given interviews and prepared literary radio programs in collaboration with national and international broadcasters. Her Arabic book titles include:

• My Grandmother Gives Up the Dream (2019)
• Literary Critiques in Poetry and the Novel (2018)
• Visions of Exile and Return in the Palestinian Arabic Novel (2014)
• From Australia: Contemporary Literary Faces (2006)
• A Spring that Did Not Blossom (2003)
• And the Children Pay the Price (2001)
• Humanitarian Patterns in the Literature of Ghassan Kanafani (1999)

Nejmeh is also an award winner: she earned the Creative Writing Award from the Australian Arabic Cultural Centre (2014), the Excellence Award from the General Union of Palestinian Workers (2013), and the Gibran Khalil Gibran International Literary Award (2006) issued by the Arabic Heritage League. She received the Australia Council for the Arts award in 2004 for her book From Australia, Contemporary Literary Faces.