Assia Djebar

Algeria (1936–2015)

Writes in French

Assie Djebar is the pen name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen, an Algerian novelist, translator, and filmmaker heralded for her anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal work. Fatima-Zohra Imalayen was born in Cherchell, Algeria. She attended the French primary school where her father worked as a teacher before attending a Quranic school in Blida, later completing high school in Algiers. She attended the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in 1955, and was the first Algerian and Muslim woman to be educated there. In 1957 she published her first novel, La Soif, under the pen name Assia Djebar.  She lived for most of her adult life between Europe, North Africa, and North America, having taught at the University of Algiers, the University of Rabat, Louisiana State University, and New York University. In 2005, she was elected to the Académie française, making her the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such an honor.