Souad Labbize

Souad Labbize (born March 25, 1965, in Algiers) is an Algerian poet, novelist and literary translator writing in French. After studying French at the universities of Algiers and Aix-en-Provence, she taught French in several countries before settling in Toulouse, having previously lived in Algeria, Germany and Tunisia.

Her work is centered on exile, patriarchy and trauma; her book "Enjamber la flaque où se reflète l'enfer" (2019) is a poetic account of the rape she survived at age nine. Her poetry collection "Je franchis les barbelés" won the Prix Méditerranée de la poésie in 2020.

She is also an established Arabic-to-French literary translator, and received the Prix Ibn Khaldoun-Senghor (2024) and the Prix Fragonard de littérature étrangère (2025) for her translation of Amira Ghenim's novel "Le désastre de la maison des notables."