US-Lebanese poet, essayist and artist Etel Adnan died on Sunday in Paris at the age of 96, with tributes pouring in from artists and creative organizations around the world.
Born in Lebanon in 1925 to a Greek mother and a Syrian father, the poet is most famous for her 1977 novel “Sitt Marie Rose” about the Lebanese civil war. It won the France-Pays Arabes award and become a classic of war literature, so much so that it is taught in American classrooms.
Adnan’s most recent honor was in 2020. Her poetry collection “Time,” which is a selection of her work — translated from French by Sarah Riggs — won the Griffin Poetry Prize.
The author, who is also a visual artist, grew up between multiple cultures, languages, nationalities and religions.
In 1949, she traveled to Paris to study philosophy at Sorbonne University, before going to the US to study at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley.
She taught philosophy in California from 1958 to 1972. During that time, she started painting and writing poetry. She developed her literary voice in English, while abstract painting was the entry point into Arabic.