Born in Montreal, Emmanuel Kattan is one of the most promising writers of the Quebec literary scene.
He holds a PhD from Université de Montréal and the prestigious title of Rhodes Scholar, which led him to pursue his postdoctoral studies at Oxford University, in Great Britain. He is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels published by Éditions Boréal, one of Quebec’s most renowned publishing houses. He has also written a remarkable essay on the Shoah entitled Penser le devoir de mémoire, published in 2002 by the Presses universitaires de France. In 2012, he published a phenomenal novel entitled Les Lignes de désir, (Éditions Boréal) whose theme explores the age-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
Previously, Kattan lived in London for almost 15 years. During this period, he worked as Director of University Affairs and Communications for the Quebec Delegation in London and as Royal Speechwriter for the office of the Commonwealth Secretary-General. Since 2010, he has been living in New York with his wife and their two children. He is presently Director of the British Council, a British government institution.
While working at the British Council in New York, he launched a project entitled “Our Shared Future.” It aimed at improving views on interculural relationships taking place on both sides of the Atlantic. Before joining the British Council, he was Head of Communications at the UN Alliance of Civilizations in New York, an ambitious project sponsored by the UN which focuses on intercultural dialogue.
Kattan is also the son of Naïm Kattan, the great Quebec author of Iraqi origin.
