Lena Merhej

Lena Merhej (PhD), illustrator researcher, has illustrated over thirty-five albums in Arabic, and authored several animation films and comic books.

After studying Graphic Design at the American University in Beirut, she completed her MFA in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design (NYC) and her PhD on “The Narrative of War in Lebanese Comics” at Jacobs University in Germany in 2015.

She is part of the founding team of the award winning comics collective, Samandal. Merhej has taught illustration and animation at American universities in Beirut. She received several awards and was featured in various local and international events.

‘I think that we will be better prepared for the next war’ (2006), the best-selling book in Lebanon in 2007 and her comic book, ‘Kamen Sine’, received the best comic book award at the FIBDA in Algiers in 2009.

In 2013 the FIBDA awarded her again for the graphic novel, ‘Yogurt and jam: Or how my mother became Lebanese’ (2011). In 2019, her book ‘Salam’ won the Mahmoud Kahil award for best graphic novel.

Recently, with the Samandal Collective, she directed a new youth comics collection in Arabic, called WatWat, and produced an online serial comic, ‘Revolution in my quarantine’ on jeem.me.

‘She narrated to me and said;’ is her latest graphic novel based on the women’s anthology by Ibn El Sa’i that she worked on with historian Enass Khansa.

Lena Merhej Online

Instagram: @lena_merhej