If you want your own Ahmad Yamani—in print, in English—you can of course pick the Beirut 39 collection (which features a few of his early works), or head back to issue No. 32 of Banipal. Or you can hop around online, notably stopping at Arabophile, Youssef Rakha’s site. But youContinue Reading

Poet/journalist Youssef Rakha has a lovely assessment of Ahmad Yamani’s work, and his position in contemporary Egyptian poetry, on the occasion of Yamani’s new book, Amakin Khati’ah. The piece was published in Al Ahram and re-published on Rakha’s blog. The context: More than other “Nineties” prose poets working in standardContinue Reading

Youssef Rakha, over at Arabophile, has posted four poems by Ahmad Yamani—although it’s not clear where they’re from or who did the translating. Nonetheless,  read them. I liked the jolt of some of the just slightly off kilter, simple lines, such as: “I opened the window and the evening wasContinue Reading