Thurayyā Malḥas

Thurayyā 'Abd al-Fattāḥ Malḥas (1925 – February 23, 2013; ) was a Palestinian poet and academic. She is considered a pioneer of free verse poetry among Palestinian women writers.

Early life and education Thurayyā Malḥas was born 1925 in Amman, in what was then the Emirate of Transjordan. She attended primary school in Amman, then moved to Jerusalem at age 15 and completed secondary school there.

In 1945, Malḥas graduated from the American Junior College for Women, now Lebanese American University, with an associate's degree. She then studied Arabic and education at the American University of Beirut, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1947 and a master's degree in 1951. Later in the 1950s, she traveled to the United Kingdom to continue her studies at SOAS University of London. and her prose poetry was characterized by lyrical and mystical elements, including "unfamiliar words and images."

Beginning in the 1940s, she wrote for various local publications in Lebanon, predominantly as an art critic, including covering her former classmate Saloua Choucair's first public show in Beirut in 1952. In the mid-to-late 1940s, she began publishing poetry and prose in Al Adib magazine, and her signature style proved influential in the local literary scene.

Her first collection of prose poetry, al-Nashid al-Ta'ih ("The Wayward Hymn"), was published in 1949.

Though best known as a poet, she also wrote short stories, novels, and essays.

Personal life and death Malḥas was married to fellow academic Musa Sulaiman. She died in Amman in 2013 at age 88.