ODED HALAHMY FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS,INC.
Cordially invite you to a special poetry reading from the recently published book:
Iraqi Poetry Today
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2003
Program begins at 6.00 p.m.
At
The KUFA GALLERY
26 Westbourne Grove
London W2 5RH
Tel: 020 7229 1928
Fax: 020 7243 8513
Manager: Walid Atiyeh
email: kufa@dircon.co.uk
Oded Halahmy Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is very happy to support the publication of
“Iraqi Poetry Today”
Editor – Daniel Weissbort
Guest Editor - Saadi Simawe
Following the reading there will be a lecture by Stephen Watts
For two decades, since the Iraq-Iran war in 1980, Iraq has been the focus of numerous
political, economic, sociological, military, and geopolitical studies. However, very little has
been published on the Iraqi literary tradition. Modern Iraq has produced a highly complex
literature of survival in response to various realities of oppression and to challenges of
modernism. This is the first major collection of modern Iraqi poetry available in the West.
Iraqi Poetry Today reanimates the cliché that calls any invaluable work with doubtful prospects
'a labour of love.' As Saadi Sadawe writes in his moving preface, 'Translating Iraqi poetry and
publishing it in English had become for me a desperate effort to save what remains of Iraqi
humanity and culture in the face of a brutal dictatorship and war.' His effort succeeds,
gloriously. 'Although I lost faith in politics long ago,' Simawe concludes, 'I still believe in the
power ofthe word.' We should try to share his hope.
—Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
Dr. Simawe guest-edited the pioneering Palestine/Israel issue of Modern Poetry in Translation
(No. 14), and three years ago guest-edited a special issue of Arab Studies Quarterly on modern
Iraqi literature.
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Oded Halahmy Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) organization.
Contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law in the United States.