Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Vénus Khoury-Ghata was a French-Lebanese poet and writer.

Early life

Vénus Khoury-Ghata was born into a Maronite family, the daughter of a French-speaking soldier and a peasant mother. She was the older sister of the author May Menassa. In 1959, she won the Miss Beirut Pageant.
She immigrated to France to escape the war in Lebanon and married French-Turkish doctor Jean Ghata, son of the Turkish manuscript illuminator Rikkat Kunt and her second husband, Fahreddin Ghata. She lived in Paris from 1972 and published several novels and collections of poems.
Her daughter Yasmine Ghata is also a renowned writer.

Career

Vénus Khoury-Ghata undertook literary studies at L'École Supérieure Des Lettres de Beirut. She published her first literary collection in 1966 and 1967 "Terres Stagnantes", "Chez Seghers", and then in 1971 she published her first novel, "Les Inadaptés".
In 2009, she received the Grand Prix de Poésie of the French Academy and the Goncourt Prize for Poetry in 2011.
In 2018, she became a member of the Parliament of French-speaking writers alongside many writers, including Sedef Ecer, Paula Jacques and Khadi Hane.

Death

Khoury-Ghata died on 28 January 2026, at the age of 88.

Literary awards

Guillaume Apollinaire Prize for The Shadows and Their Cries
Mallarmé Prize for Monologue du mort
Jules-Supervielle Prize for Personal Anthology
Prix Nice-Baie-des-Anges for Le Moine, l'ottoman and the wife of the great treasurer
SGDL Grand Prize for Poetry for all of her work
Jules-Janin Prize of the French Academy
Grand Prize for Poetry of the French Academy
Guillevic Grand Prize for Poetry of Saint-Malo
Goncourt Prize for Poetry for her body of work
Pierrette-Micheloud Poetry Prize for Where are the trees going?
Renaudot Pocket Book Prize for The fiancée was on the back of a donkey
Geneviève Moll Biography Prize for ''The Last Days of Mandelstam''

Honours

Works

Les visages inachevés, 1966Les inadaptés, novel, Le Rocher, 1971Au Sud du silence, poems, Saint Germain des Prés, 1975Terres stagnantes, poems, SeghersDialogue à propos d’un Christ ou d’un acrobate, novel, Les Editeurs Français Réunis, 1975Alma, cousue main ou Le Voyage immobile, R. Deforges, 1977Les ombres et leurs cris, poems, Belfond, 1979Qui parle au nom du jasmin ?, Les Editeurs Français Réunis, 1980Le fils empaillé, Belfond, 1980Un faux pas du soleil, poems, Belfond, 1982Vacarme pour une lune morte, novel, Flammarion, 1983Les morts n’ont pas d’ombre, novela Flammarion, 1984Mortemaison, novel, Flammarion, 1986Monologue du Mort, novel, Belfond, 1986Leçon d’arithmétique au grillon, poems for children, Milan, 1987Bayarmine, novel, Flammarion, 1988Les fugues d’Olympia, novel, Régine Deforges/Ramsay, 1989Fables pour un peuple d’argile, '' Un lieu sous la voûte, Sommeil blanc, poems, Belfond, 1992La maîtresse du notable novel, Seghers, 1992Ils, poems, Amis du musée d’art moderne, 1993Les fiancés du Cap-Ténès, novel, Lattès, Lattès 1995Anthologie personnelle, poems, Actes Sud, 1997Une maison au bord des larmes, novel, Balland, 1998La maestra, 1996, collection Babel, 2001Elle dit, Les sept brins de chèvrefeuille de la sagesse, poems, Balland, 1999La voix des arbres, poems for children Cherche-Midi, 1999Alphabets de sable, poems, illustrated by Matta, tirage limité, Maeght, 2000Le Fleuve, Du seul fait d’exister, with Paul Chanel Malenfant, Trait d’Union, 2000.Version des oiseaux, poems, illustrated by Velikovic, François Jannaud, 2000Privilège des morts, novel, Balland, 2001Compassion des pierres, poemas, La Différence, 2001Zarifé la folle, François Jannaud, 2001Le Moine, l’ottoman et la femme du grand argentier, novel, Actes Sud, 2003Quelle est la nuit parmi les nuits, Mercure de France, 2004Six poèmes nomades, with Diane de Bournazel, Al Manar, 2005La Maison aux orties, Actes Sud, 2006Sept pierres pour la femme adultère'', roman, Mercure de France, 2007