Wadad Makdisi Cortas (1909 - 1979) (in Arabic "وداد مقدسي قرطاس") was a Lebanese-Palestinian educator and memoirist.

Early life

Wadad Makdisi grew up in an educated family in Beirut, and attended Ahliah National School for Girls as a child.

Career

Cortas worked at her alma mater, the Ahliah National School for Girls, for forty years, as a teacher and then for 26 years as principal,[1] before she retired in 1972. She also taught at Beirut College for Women, and was on the board of the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts.

Cortas's memoir, Dunia Ahbab-tuha (A World I Loved) was published in Arabic in the 1960s. She translated the memoir into English and updated it in her retirement;[2] the revised version was published posthumously, with a foreword by Nadine Gordimer, in 2009.[3] In 2012, a stage adaptation of Cortas's book, starring Vanessa Redgrave, was produced first at the Brighton Festival,[4] then at Columbia University,[5] and in 2015 at the Spoleto Festival in Italy.[6][7]

Personal life

Cortas married a businessman from Brummana, Emile Cortas, who founded the canning company Cortas.[8] They had four children, including the writer Mariam C. Said. Cortas had a stroke in 1972 with lasting effects; she died in 1979, aged 70 years. Her granddaughter Najla Said is an actress and playwright in New York City.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Amy Wilentz, "Essay: A Mutual Passion for the Middle East, and a Divide" Los Angeles Times (July 12, 2009).
  2. ↑ Norbert Bugeja, "Wadad Makdisi Cortas' A World I Loved: Some Conclusions, More Beginnings" in Postcolonial Memoir in the Middle East: Rethinking the Liminal in Mashriqi Writing (Routledge 2012): 185. ISBN 9780415509138
  3. ↑ Wadad Makdisi Cortas, A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman (ReadHowYouWant 2010). ISBN 9781458766724
  4. ↑ "World Premiere: A World I Loved" Brighton Festival (2012).
  5. ↑ Adam Hetrick, "A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman, Featuring Vanessa Redgrave, Presented at Columbia Nov. 28-29" Playbill (November 28, 2012).
  6. ↑ "A World I Loved" Spoleto Festival (2015).
  7. ↑ Joshua Furst, "The World that Mariam Said Loved" Forward (December 15, 2012).
  8. ↑ "About Us: Our Story" Cortas.net.
  9. ↑ Felicia R. Lee, "Identity Found: On West Side via West Bank" New York Times (February 9, 2010): C1.
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