The Trace They Wished to Leave

Contact: Tel: 020 7420 9887, poetrycafe@poetrysociety.org.uk

TWO POETS FROM MODERN IRAQ

Badr shakir al-Sayyab is a household name not only in Iraq but in the whole Arab World. Most Arab critics consider him to have been the founder of the free verse movement in the late forties of the 20th century - a movement which helped to change forever the course of Arabic poetry.

Mahmoud Al-Braikan was born in Zubair near Basra in 1931. He received his initial education in Basra, but went to Baghdad in 1964 to study law at the University of Baghdad. He then taught Arabic Language and Literature at Basra's Teachers' Training College. Though a prolific writer he did not leave a Collected Works. Some 70 of his poems in Arabic were assembled , selected, and published posthumously in 2003 by Mr B. Meraiby.

These two poets will be presented by the poet, critic and translator, Salah Niazi, (with some assistance from others). Salah Niazi went into voluntary exile in 1963 and worked as the head of the cultural unit at the BBC Arabic Service.

He has published more than twenty books including ten collections of poetry and five books of criticism (amongst them a critical study of the Epic of Gilgamesh).

"The Trace They Wished to Leave" is a series organised by Sebastian Hayes, co-Director of Brimstone Press Ltd. www.poetryintranslation.org

Price: £5.00 / £3.00

Time: 7:30pm