Mudhaffar An-Nawwab. One of the highlights of my trip to Houston was meeting Iraqi poet, Mudhaffar An-Nawwab. He is the greatest dissident poet of the Arab world, fleeing Saddam's regime, and then moving from one country to another (and not being wanted in any of them), and having to worry about Saddam's henchmen who followed him--as he told me--from one country to another. He had to leave Syria at one point, because Saddam's agents were trying to kill him. I was very curious about him: so I bombarded him with questions: about his past, and about his writing techniques and style. He said that Dar Al-Mada is working on a new edition of his poems, and that the available collection of his poetry in the Arab market are pirated. He said that he still writes, and that he has poems that have not been published. He also told me that this is the most bleak political period that he has lived through. He has not returned to Iraq since the American occupation, and that if he were to go he will only go to Baghdad to insist on the unity of Iraq in the face of fragmentation. He was invited to the Sulaymaniyyah court meeting with Jalal Talbani (hosted by the pro-US occupation, Fakhri Karim) but he declined. He said that he now is less able to recite his poetry from memory. He asked me why I have not appeared on Arab channels as of late: I told him that I don't seem to be desired by them. I asked him why he has not recorded his memoirs on AlJazeera. He said that he boycotts AlJazeera and other Arab channels because of their bad coverage of Iraq. I have translated some poems by him: search the archives section NOW.
PS Picture was taken with my phone (or blender, I forgot).