Hoda Barakat (Arabic: هدى بركات) is an acclaimed Lebanese novelist who lived much of her life in Beirut and later moved to Paris, where she now resides. Her works, written in Arabic, have been translated into many languages.
Her first work Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of Laughter), is the first Arabic work to have a gay man as its main character. Her third novel, Harit al-miyah (The Tiller of Waters), won the 2000 Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature. She has also written Ahl el-Hawa (People of Love).