Khaled Mattawa
Encyclopedia
Khaled Mattawa
is a Libyan
poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan
, Ann Arbor, Michigan
, USA, where he currently lives and writes.
, the second largest city in Libya
where he spent his childhood and early teens. In 1979 he emigrated to the United States
. He lived in the South for many years, finishing high school in Louisiana
and completing bachelors degrees in political science and economics at the University of Tennessee
at Chattanooga. He went on to earn an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University
where he taught creative writing
. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at California State University
, Northridge
.
His work has appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review
, Blackbird, Crazyhorse, New England Review
, Callaloo
, Poetry East, Michigan Quarterly Review
, The Iowa Review
, Black Warrior Review
and The Pushcart Prize XIX, The Best American Poetry 1997 anthologies.
Khaled Mattawa began writing poetry in late 1980s. His first collection of poems was published 1995. He then started working on translating Arabic poetry
of renowned Arab poets into English, his first translation Questions and Their Retinue: Selected Poems of Iraqi poet Hatif Janabi
was published in 1996. He contributed and edited two Anthologies on Arab American Literature.
Khaled Mattawa is a contributing editor for Banipal
magazine, the leading independent magazine of contemporary Arab literature translated into English. He is president of Radius of Arab American Writers organization RAWI.
award, the PEN
award for literary translation, a 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship
, the Alfred Hodder fellowship from Princeton University
1995-1996, an NEA translation grant, and two Pushcart
prizes.
is a Libyan
Libyan
A Libyan is a person or thing of, from, or related to Libya in North Africa.The term Libyan may also refer to:* A person from Libya, or of Libyan descent. For information about the Libyan people, see Demographics of Libya and Culture of Libya. For specific persons, see List of Libyans.* Libyan...
poet, and a renowned Arab-American writer, he is also a leading literary translator, focusing on translating Arabic poetry into English. He works as an Assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, USA, where he currently lives and writes.
Background
Khaled Mattawa was born in BenghaziBenghazi
Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...
, the second largest city in Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
where he spent his childhood and early teens. In 1979 he emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He lived in the South for many years, finishing high school in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and completing bachelors degrees in political science and economics at the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
at Chattanooga. He went on to earn an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
where he taught creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
. He is a professor of English and Creative Writing at California State University
California State University
The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
, Northridge
Northridge
Northridge is the name of some places in the United States of America:*Northridge, Los Angeles, California, a community in California's San Fernando Valley** California State University, Northridge** The Northridge earthquake of 1994...
.
His work has appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
, Blackbird, Crazyhorse, New England Review
New England Review
The New England Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. Founded in New Hampshire in 1978 by poet, novelist, editor and professor Sydney Lea and poet Jay Parini, it was published as New England Review & Bread Loaf Quarterly from 1982 , until 1991 as a formal...
, Callaloo
Callaloo
Callaloo is a popular Caribbean dish served in different variants in across the Caribbean. The main ingredient is a leaf vegetable, traditionally either amaranth , taro or Xanthosoma. Both are known by many names including callaloo, coco, tannia, bhaaji, or dasheen bush...
, Poetry East, Michigan Quarterly Review
Michigan Quarterly Review
The Michigan Quarterly Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1962 and published at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.The quarterly publishes art, essays, interviews, memoirs, fiction, poetry, and book reviews as well as writing "in a wide variety of research areas", according to...
, The Iowa Review
The Iowa Review
The Iowa Review is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews.Founded in 1970, this magazine is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Originally, it was released on a quarterly basis. This frequency of publication lasted...
, Black Warrior Review
Black Warrior Review
The Black Warrior Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1974 and based at the University of Alabama. Work appearing in BWR has been anthologized in the Pushcart Prize collection, The Best American Short Stories , Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South. The Spring 1978 issue...
and The Pushcart Prize XIX, The Best American Poetry 1997 anthologies.
Khaled Mattawa began writing poetry in late 1980s. His first collection of poems was published 1995. He then started working on translating Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed, or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter...
of renowned Arab poets into English, his first translation Questions and Their Retinue: Selected Poems of Iraqi poet Hatif Janabi
Hatif Janabi
Hatif Janabi is an Iraqi poet, translator and author. Born near Babylon in 1952, he studied Arabic language and literature at Baghdad University. He moved to Warsaw, Poland in 1976 for higher studies, eventually obtaining a masters degree in Polish language and literature and a PhD in drama, both...
was published in 1996. He contributed and edited two Anthologies on Arab American Literature.
Khaled Mattawa is a contributing editor for Banipal
Banipal
Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...
magazine, the leading independent magazine of contemporary Arab literature translated into English. He is president of Radius of Arab American Writers organization RAWI.
Awards and recognition
Khaled Mattawa has won an Academy of American PoetsAcademy of American Poets
The Academy of American Poets is a non-profit organization dedicated to the art of poetry. The Academy was incorporated as a "membership corporation" in New York State in 1934...
award, the PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
award for literary translation, a 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, the Alfred Hodder fellowship from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
1995-1996, an NEA translation grant, and two Pushcart
Pushcart
Pushcart may refer to:* Pushcart Press* Pushcart Prize* The Pushcart War, a 1964 children's book by Jean Merrill* a synonym for baggage cart...
prizes.
Poetry
- Tocqueville New Issues, 2010 ISBN 9781930974906
- Amorisco Ausable Press, 2008, ISBN 9781931337441
- Ismailia Eclipse The Sheep Meadow Press, 1995, ISBN 9781878818447
Translation from Arabic
- Adonis: Selected Poems (The Margellos World Republic of Letters), Yale 2010, ISBN 9780300153064 (shortlisted for the 2011 Griffin Poetry PrizeGriffin Poetry PrizeThe Griffin Poetry Prize is Canada's most generous poetry award. It was founded in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Scott Griffin. The awards go to one Canadian and one international poet who writes in the English language....
) - Amjad Nasser, (2009). Shepherd of solitude: selected poems, 1979-2004, Banipal Books, ISBN 9780954966683
- Joumana HaddadJoumana HaddadJoumana Haddad is a renowned Lebanese poet, translator and journalist.-Career:She has already published several poetry collections, widely acclaimed by critics...
, (2008). Invitation to a Secret Feast, Tupelo Press, ISBN 9781932195620 - Iman MirsalIman MirsalIman Mirsal is an Egyptian poet.-Life:She graduated from the Mansoura University, and from Cairo University with a PhD.She was co-editor of Bint al-Ard from 1986 to 1992....
, (2008). These are not oranges, my love: selected poems, Sheep Meadow Press, ISBN 9781931357548 - Maram Al-Massri, (2004). A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor: Selected Poems by Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, UK, 2004, ISBN 9781852246402; Copper Canyon PressCopper Canyon PressCopper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press, specializing in the publication of poetry and located in the picturesque town of Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972, the Press has published poetry exclusively and has established an international reputation for its commitment to...
, USA, 2007 - Saadi YoussefSaadi YoussefSaadi Yousef is an Iraqi author, poet, journalist, publisher, and political activist. He has published thirty volumes of poetry and seven books of prose.-Life:Saadi Yousef studied Arabic literature in Baghdad...
, (2002). Without An Alphabet, Without A Face: Selected Poems Graywolf Press, ISBN 9781555973711 - Fadhil Al Azzawi, (1997). In Every Well A Joseph Is Weeping, poems of Quarterly Review of Books
Anthologies of Arab American Literature
- Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Arab American Fiction, University of Arkansas Press, 2004 ISBN 978-1-55728-912-4
- Post Gibran: Anthology of New Arab American Writing, Kitab, 1999, ISBN 9780965203135
See also
- English literatureEnglish literatureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
- Libyan literatureLibyan literatureLibyan literature has its roots in Antiquity, but contemporary Libyan writing draws on a variety of influences.The Arab Renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries did not reach Libya as early as other Arab lands, and Libyans contributed little to its initial development...
- Arabic literatureArabic literatureArabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
- List of Arab American writers
External links
- Selected poems from Web Del Sol
- An interview with Khaled Mattawa on MELUS by Salah D. Hassan
- A Conversation with Khaled Mattawa Jeff Lodge and Patty Paine for Blackbird online literary journal
- University of Michigan MFA Faculty
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography of Khaled Mattawa, including video clip
- "Conversation: Libyan Poet Khaled Mattawa", PBS Newshour, March 1, 2011
- "Ali Ahmida & Khaled Mattawa", Charlie Rose, February 22, 2011