ALI ALBAZZAZ

ALI ALBAZZAZ was born in Al Nasiriye, the city in southern Iraq where Abraham came from. He was educated at the Institute of Economic and Administrative Education. "The regime decided that because I was not allowed to study literature." In 1997 he fled to the Netherlands after it became known that the secret police wanted him because of his thoughts about the Iran-Iraqi war. “From 1980, all prose and poetry in Iraq had to be about the war. A writer's heart had to become obedient as socks," he said afterward about that period in an interview with Erik Menkveld. Publicly publishing such as was briefly in the 1970s was no longer possible, but Albazzaz continued to write underground. The poet learns words, for things have become through the word. He learns words in any language, otherwise, he is lost, speechless forever. He makes surprising combinations of the new words. He sees poetry as an exercise to conquer sentences in a language, 'I always hope for new words'. Albazzaz has published poems in various magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium. His work has been included in collections such as Dichters in de Prinsentuin (Groningen), Literary Matinee (Assen, 2001), the anthologies Wereldplaat (Passage, Groningen, 2001), and A Hand from the Night (Dunya, Rotterdam 2002) and in Want met chin and lips gone cannot be kissed (POTS FOR PEACE