Teacher - Writer
"Novels are a powerful form in which the
language is reshaped, a place where the imagination unfolds, an intellectual
construction that must generate emotion," explains Yasmine Chami. Right
from her first novel “Ceremony” which evokes the fate of three women, a novel
published in 1999 at “Actes Sud” publishers, Yasmine drew the attention of
literary critique. On
September 10, 2001, her twins were born in New York. She knots with them a
close bond: "They have transformed the way I look at the world and my
relationship with the family”, says Yasmine Chami who then stopped writing:
"Maternity is a powerful adventure that I wanted to live to the fullest. I chose to raise my
children first. There
is always tension between life and writing. When her children grew up she went back to writing:
"This allows me to know who I am”, says Yasmine. Her latest novel “Dying
is an enchantment” published at “Actes Sud”, tells of the slow maturity of an
individual, "a young woman aged forty suffering from uterus cancer." Being an anthropologist
by training, attentive to social movements in Morocco, the writer has also
produced, via her production company Gaia, television programs in the Moroccan
language ("Darija") attracting a strong audience. Yasmine Chami, was born
within a family of intellectuals, in Casablanca, the "city of her life,
personal building and maturity". "Fez and Rabat are my beloved cities because
they are linked to my grandparents who have given me the pride of being what I
am, with a strong anchoring in my country and openness to others”, says Yasmine
who currently teaches philosophy and literature: "Teaching, sharing and
transmitting are a great joy," she concludes.