Shepherd of Solitude: Selected Poems 1979-2004

by Amjad Nasser, Khaled Mattawa PhD (Translator)

Overview

First poetry collection by London-based Jordanian poet Amjad Nasser in English translation by foremost Arabic poetry translator Khaled Mattawa. A powerfully existential chronicle of exile, Shepherd of Solitude conjures a new understanding of Arab life, from war-torn Beirut, to castles in Andalusia, to Bedouin Jordan, to a London suburb in which the poet blends his Bedouin Arab heritage with European literary modernism producing an enthralling range of vivid, thoughtful and intimate poems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780954966683
Publisher:	Banipal Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.75(h) x (d)

About the Author

Amjad Nasser (1955-2019) was an important and innovative participant in the contemporary Arab poetry and literary scene. His death, announced on 30 October 2019, after a long struggle against cancer, is a major loss to the world of Arabic literature and beyond. Born in Jordan in 1955, from 1976 Amjad Nasser worked as a journalist and editor on newspapers in Beirut and Cyprus. Since 1987 he lived in London, where he was for many years managing editor and cultural editor of Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily newspaper. He published more than ten volumes of poetry, four travel memoirs and two novels. Khaled Mattawa was born in Benghazi, Libya in 1964 and emigrated to the USA in his teens in 1979. He is the author of six books of poetry and two critical studies. His awards include the Academy of American Poets Fellowship prize, the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, and a MacArthur Fellowship that was one of 21 “genius grants” awarded in 2014 to outstanding figures by the MacArthur Foundation. He has translated eleven volumes of contemporary Arabic poetry by major Arab poets, among them Adonis, Saadi Youssef, Amjad Nasser, Fadhil al-Azzawi and Iman Mersal and others.