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Abdo Wazen
Abdo Wazen was born in Beirut in 1957. He is a poet, literary critic and translator. He is currently literary editor of the online Independent Arabia (https://www.independentarabia.com/), after serving as cultural editor of the international daily Al-Hayat newspaper for many years until its demise.
Abdo Wazen is also a well-known translator of poetry from French into Arabic. He published his first collection of poems The Locked Forest in 1982, and since then six others. Copies of his book, Hadiqat al-Hawas (Garden of Sensation, 1993) were seized by the Lebanese Ministry of Interior on accusations of licentiousness.
In 1997 his translation of Jacques Prevert: 50 Poems was published by Dar An-Nahar. He later translated and introduced Nadia Twueni: 20 poems for a Love. Diwan al-Hallaj, edited and introduced by Abdo Wazen, is highly regarded.
His memoir, An Open Heart, was written after he underwent a major heart operation in 2010, and is excerpted in Banipal 40 – Libyan Fiction.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 34 - The World of Arab Fiction (2009)
Banipal 53 - The Short Stories of Zakaria Tamer (2015)
Banipal 64 - A Rebel named Hanan al-Shaykh (2019)
Banipal 71 - Salutes Ihsan Abdel Kouddous (Summer 2021)
Banipal 58 - Arab Literary Awards (Spring 2017)
Banipal 33 - Autumn/Winter 2008
Banipal 68 - Short Stories (Summer 2020)
Banipal 40 - Libyan Fiction (2011)
Banipal 74 - Celebrating Khalida Said and Modern Arabic Poetry (Summer 2022)
Banipal 66 - Travels (Autumn/Winter 2019)
Banipal 67 - Elias Khoury, The Novelist (Spring 2020)
Banipal 69 - 9 New Novels (Autumn/Winter 2020)
Banipal 62 - A Literary Journey through Arab Cinema (2018)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal Book Club
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