Diego Isaias Hernández Méndez, Convertiendse en Characoteles / Sorcerers Changing into Their Animal Forms (detail), 2013, oil on canvas. Arte Maya Tz’utujil Collection.
AGNI 94
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Bread, Hashish, and the Moon
Nizar Qabbani (1923–1998) is arguably the Arab world’s greatest love poet and critic of Arab political and cultural traditions, particularly those that oppress women. A career diplomat, he served in Syrian embassies in Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Britain, China, and Spain. He lived his latter days in London, having been expelled by many Arabic governments for criticism voiced in poetry that people adored, memorized, and often set to music. In more than thirty-five books, he helped establish the idioms of modern Arabic poetry using the rhythms and language of everyday Syrian speech.
Rana Bitar, a Syrian-American physician, is the author of a memoir, The Long Tale of Tears and Smiles (Global Collective, 2021), and a poetry chapbook, A Loaf Of Bread (Unsolicited Press, 2019), which was a finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook Competition and received honorable mention in The Louis Award for poetry. Her poetry and essays have appeared in The Deadly Writers Patrol Journal, DoveTales, Earthen Lamp Journal, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, and other journals, as well as in Seeing Things: An Anthology of Poetry (Woodland Arts Editions, 2020). Her translations of Nizar Qabbani’s poetry have appeared in Illuminations, AGNI, The Nonconformist, & The American Journal of Poetry. (updated 10/2021)
Robert Bensen is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Before (Five Oaks Press, 2019). His poems have appeared in The Antioch Review, Callaloo, The Paris Review, AGNI, Poetry Wales, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Harvard University, the State of New York, and the Illinois Arts Council. He conducts the community poetry workshop at Bright Hill Press in Treadwell, New York, and is the founding director of Woodland Arts Editions, a small literary press. More info at robertbensen.com. (updated 10/2021)