“His illusions, his distant dreams, and his winged fantasies seemed to flutter quietly with emotion and land on his poems, leaving their enchanting colorful feathers on them.”Continue Reading
The aftermath of September 11th 2001, which brought about the “war on terror” and the invasion of Iraq, also led the destruction of the Iraqi state and its social structure. Authors, translators and scholars Sinan Antoon, Dunya Mikhail, Adnan Al-Sayegh, Jenny Lewis, and Haytham Bahoora meet to read from their work and discuss how Iraq in contemporary literature ‘writes back’ in the face of destruction and assaults on culture.Continue Reading
“The no-hair phenomenon certainly has a backstory. “Continue Reading
“Angels don’t cook / Poetry is inedible / What will we eat today? Legends?”Continue Reading
“In the early morning hours of June 12, the great Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef died at his home in the village of Harefield, outside London.”Continue Reading
“You, well of thirst,/ Black treasure in the wolf’s mouth,/ Let your lamp, that speaks miracles, light the name of Iraq.”Continue Reading
“I am a candlestick that argues about the power of darkness inside you, / in your many holes.”Continue Reading
“It is important to note that the state marketed the novels it sponsored (including the novels of Saddam) as belonging to Arab ‘resistance literature’; a corpus of works with a long tradition of anti-imperialist struggle in the Arab world.”Continue Reading
Blasim also has a forthcoming novel, God 99, that follows Hassan Owl, an Iraqi who arrives in Finland as a writer and a refugee.Continue Reading
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