Roger Assaf

Roger Assaf is a Lebanese playwright, director and actor. He studied medicine at Université Saint Joseph (USJ) for four years, but left studies to dedicate himself to acting. At age 12, he landed an acting role in a play directed by Henri Khayyat. He established a university theatre center staging experimental plays. He collaborated in television stagings with Jean-Claude Boulos, Antoine Remé, Elias Matta and Antoine Machhour. In 1963, he received a grant from the French Embassy in Lebanon to study acting in Strasbourg, France. In 1965, he was part of the renaissance of Lebanese theatre and in 1966, he was a co-founder of the College of Arts in the Lebanese University. He was also one of the co-founders of Theatre de Beyrouth in Ain Mreissé, Beirut where he put on a great number of plays, as director and actor. His play Majdaloun about the Palestinian armed presence in south Lebanon was censored and stopped by the Lebanese authorities only after three days of its launch. Assaf participated in plays with Gabriel Boustani, Jalal Khoury, Chakib Khoury, Yacoub Chedraoui, Hassan Alaa Eddin, the Rahbani Brothers and with Mounir Abou Debs. In 1968 he co-founded with Nidal al Achkar Muhtaraf Beirut lil Masrah. In 1979, he established his own hakawati house and in 2005, Duwwar el Chams Center for encouraging youth to be involved in theatre. In 1985, he published the book المسرحة – أقنعة المدينة. Also in 1985, he produced the film Maaraka (in Arabic معركة). In 2007, he published the study في العمل المسرحي والسياسي في لبنان. Assaf has won numerous prizes for his works including the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2008. A supporter of the Palestinian cause, Assaf converted to Islam in 1986. He now lives in Montpellier.

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her collection of 40 palindromic sonnets, titled This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, is forthcoming from Penguin Poets in Spring 2027. She’s the winner of the 2023 Arab American Book Award for Poetry for O, which was named a Best Book of the Year by Literary Hub and The New York Public Library. She’s also the author of Louder than Hearts and To Live in Autumn, as well as the chapbooks 3arabi Song and There Was and How Much There Was. Her work has appeared in LARB, Lithub, The Nation, Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. She’s the co-editor, with Hala Alyan, of the anthology We Call to the Eye and the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent. She’s the co-creator and co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast in Arabic about Arabic poetry. After a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai, Zeina currently resides in California.