The Third Sex

By (author) جمانة حدّاد; By (photographer) Stephen Carroll/Trevillion Images; Cover design or artwork by HA
Description
Does it really take courage to discuss what we are afraid of, or maybe even ashamed of? I am long past this question. Now, when I write, I mainly seek to discover more of my layers, to raise my level of consciousness, to help others and myself. I don’t see the red flags, I don’t hear the warnings, and I don’t care about the land mines that could explode under my feet. I simply ambush myself, and then I charge at it and peel off my skins until I am completely naked on paper. That’s when I become both the voyeur and the exhibitionist; the banquet and its host. And every time a bomb blows up in my face I feel ecstatic, because then I will be able to gift pieces of my own flesh to the readers. Those pieces are my truths, my words, my humble gifts to you in this book. …and they are also my traps.

Biographical note
Joumana Haddad — Lebanese award-winning poet, writer, translator and journalist. She was the editor of An-Nahar newspaper’s cultural page for more than ten years, and she taught creative writing at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. She’s an activist for equality, freedom of expression and human rights. She’s been selected as one of the world’s 100 most powerful Arab women by Arabian Business magazine, for her cultural and social activism. Her works, which have been widely translated and published around the world, include The Return of Lilith, I Killed Scheherazade, Superman is an Arab, The Third Sex and the play Kafas (Cages), performed with great success at Metro Al Madina theater.