"I remember now Badr Shakir al-Sayyab - I see him in our house, with a group of friends, sitting on small straw chairs, sharing a table, or improvising a seat on the floor."
Thinking About Beginnings: A Conversation with Robyn Creswell
"It’s important to emphasize that the interventions poets make in political debates take the form of poems: they don‘t slot abstract dogmas into verse molds. No—they actually think in poetry. "
‘Adonis at 90’: A Digital, Poetic, Global Celebration
Last year, 2020, marked the year of Adonis's ninetieth, and on December 31, 2020 -- at the very end of his 90th year -- celebratory videos were uploaded to the website adonis90.org.
New Collection of Adonis’s Poems To Be Released in Chinese Before Arabic
According to the Chinese news agency, the Chinese translation of Osmanthus is made up of 50 poems "that express the poet's affections for China's natural scenery, history, and culture, according to the publisher Yilin Press."
Robyn Creswell on Poetic Modernism in Beirut and Deprovincializing Comparative Literature
"But I was able to find out that some early issues of that magazine did receive funding from the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and that was unexpected."
For National Poetry Day: 10 from New or Forthcoming Collections
Each time I begin to write about love
the other woman reaches out
and pushes my fingers from the keyboard
the lonely woman who lost everything
the wild woman
who looks like me
Arabic Poetry Friday: Tamim Barghouti’s Latest, Submission Suggestions, Second Graders Read Adonis
Zeinobia has posted a new poem by Palestinian-Egyptian poet Tamim Barghouti, son of Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour and Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti. The poem is "يا شعب مصر." Tamim Barghouti … Continue reading Arabic Poetry Friday: Tamim Barghouti’s Latest, Submission Suggestions, Second Graders Read Adonis
And, Why We Shouldn’t Listen to Poets about Politics
You'll have to forgive John Donatich's hagiographic essay about the Syrian poet Adonis, which just appeared in The Front Table, since Donatich is---after all---the director of Yale University Press, and thus flogging Adonis's wonderful new book.
Was the Arab Novel Prize Given to Al-Koni for Bad Reasons? (And Then, We’ll Forget All That And Talk Poetry)
Let's grit our teeth and get this over with: Did (the extremely talented and worthy) Ibrahim al-Koni win Egypt's "Arab Novel Prize" because judging chair Gaber Asfour wanted to return a chit to Moammar Ghaddafi? After all, Libya awarded Asfour the Ghaddafi Prize for International Literature earlier this year.
Adonis: Poetry is Only Written by Atheists
The Syrian poet Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Asbar) appeared last night in one of the culminating events of the London Poetry Festival. Adonis read along with translatorStephen Watts and fellow poet Yang Lian.
Adonis at Alwan: Always More Beauty to Be Seen
Among Adonis' recent appearances at high-profile New York City venues including the 92 Street Y and Poets House was a reading and Q&A at Alwan for the Arts in Lower Manhattan. The evening began with a brief reading from the recently published Adonis: Selected Poems, featuring new translations in English by Khaled Mattawa. The predominantly Arabic-speaking audience responded vocally to Adonis' dramatic recitations and Mattawa's skilled translations.
‘So Much Survives the Process of Translation’
Yes, it's Halloween, but it's also nearly time for this year's Arab-focused London Poetry Festival. Spooooky!