This book, Diván de poetisas árabes contemporáneas (Divan of Contemporary Arab Women Poets), attempts to highlight the importance of a poetic history which began in the mid-twentieth century, through the work of ten women poets: Fadwa Tuqan, Nazik Al-Malaika, Lamia Abbas Amara, Saniya Saleh, Suad Al-Sabah, Fawzia Abu Khaled, Amal Yarrah, Huda Ali Iblan, Suzanne Alaywan and Widad Benmusa. The work, published by Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, includes a foreword by Adonis, written specifically for this edition.

The book’s presentation and the recital will be given in Arabic and Spanish by Clara Janés, a poet and translator, as well as Jaafar Al Aluni, author of this edition and its translation from Arabic.

Jaafar Al Aluni, the edition’s translator and author, has introduced the selection of women authors as follows: 

“Following a chronological order, the anthology begins with the poets who started the women’s poetry movement and, at the same time, introduced changes in the poetic tradition as of the 1950’s: Nazik Al-Malaika and Fadwa Tuqan. The sixties ushered in the beginning of poetic modernity through the magazine Sh’ir, and I decided to represent this through Saniya Saleh and her contemporary poetess, Amal Yarrah. The topic of women’s freedom and the role of women in Arab society was expressed in the seventies and eighties through three women poets: Lamia Abbas Amara, Suad Al-Sabah and Fawzia Abu Jaled. And to end with the 1990’s, I wished to create a poetic map of the entire Arab world, choosing the Lebanese poet Suzanne Alaywan from amongst the Eastern countries, Morocco’s Widad Benmusa from the Western countries and Yemeni poet Huda Iblan from the Gulf countries.”

Jaafar Al Aluni (Damascus, 1989) has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Philology from the University of Damascus and a Master’s degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Alcalá de Henares. He is a translator and journalist who has long worked as a curator of cultural exhibitions. He was the director of the book forums at the Syrian Ministry of Culture from 2012 through 2016 and has translated several works of Spanish literature into Arabic, including: La deshumanización del arte (The Dehumanization of Art) by J. Ortega y Gasset (2012), Literatura española del siglo XX (Twentieth-century Spanish Literature, 2013), Niebla (Fog) by Miguel de Unamuno (2014), Don Quijote de la Mancha, versión infantil (Children’s Version of Don Quixote of La Mancha, 2014), Rimas (Rhymes) by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (2014), etc. 

Clara Janés (Barcelona, 1940). With a degree in Philosophy and Letters and a Master’s degree IV Sorbonne in Comparative Literature from the University of Paris, she has worked on poetry, novels, biographies and essays and is distinguished as a translator of different languages. In 1997, she received the National Translation Award for her lifetime work. In the year 2000, she earned the First Category Medal of Merit awarded by the Czech Republic for her translations and increasing awareness about that country’s literature. She has been awarded various prizes in the field of lyrical writing. Amongst these, she was awarded the Fine Arts Gold Medal of Merit in 2004, the tenth Teresa de Ávila Prize for Spanish Letters in 2007 and the Francisco Pino Experimental Poetry Prize in 2011. In 2015, she was selected to become a member of the Royal Spanish Language Academy. 

Her most notable poetry books include Kampa (1986), Rosas de fuego (Roses of Fire, 1996), La indetenible quietud (The Unstoppable Quiet, 1998, with engravings by Chillida), Arcángel de sombra (Archangel of Shadow, 1999), (1998), Los secretos del bosque (The Secrets from the Forest, 2002), Río hacia la nada (River to Nothing, 2010), Variables ocultas (Hidden Variables, 2010), Orbes del sueño (Dream Orbs, 2013), and ψ o el jardín de las delicias (ψ or the Garden of Delights, 2014). Her essays include La palabra y el secreto (The Word and the Secret, 1999), María Zambrano. Desde la sombra llameante (María Zambrano: From the Flaming shadow, 2010), Guardar la casa y cerrar la boca. En torno a la mujer y la literatura (Keeping House and Closing Your Mouth: About women and literature, 2015). Her novels include Los caballos del sueño (The Dream Horses, 1989) and El hombre de Adén (The Man from Aden, 1991). She is the author of a biography titled La vida callada de Federico Mompou (The Quiet Life of Federico Mompou, 1975), a volume of conversations with Antonio Gamoneda titled De la realidad y la poesía (On Reality and Poetry, 2010), a book of memoirs titled Jardín y laberinto (Garden and Labyrinth, 1990) and La voz de Ofelia (Ofelia’s Voice, 2005)