Hawa Gamodi is a poet, journalist, critic, and educator. Born in 1962 in a suburb of Tripoli, Libya, she has taught, done graduate and postgraduate studies in Arabic literature and Islamic studies, and held various editorial roles for a number of magazines. Read More Most recently she was editor in chief of a children’s magazine, where she introduced a section teaching Libyan children about their citizenship rights. In her poetry and prose, she is concerned with female experience and often uses daring taboo-breaking language. Her  writing began appearing in Libyan publications in 1982, when she was still a student, but until 1999 she chose to publish under various pen names. The first piece to be published under her own name was “A Woman and Her Habits,” which was featured in the Libyan Writers Associations’ periodical Four Seasons. Her published books include The Lonely [Woman] and Running in the Wind Fields. Since 2011, she has been active in civil society organizations, working on freedom of expression and women’s rights.