Kacem Haddad

Qassim Haddad (born 1948) is a Bahraini poet, particularly notable within the Arab world for his free verse poetry. His poems have been translated in several languages including German, English and French.

Biography Qassim Haddad was born in Bahrain in 1948 and did not complete his secondary education, having educated himself over the years.

He worked in the public library from 1968 to 1975, but was in and out of political incarceration for five years’ total between 1973 and 1980. In 1980, he joined the Culture and Arts Department at the Ministry of Information. His column, "وقت للكتابة" (“Time to Write”), has been syndicated weekly in a number of Arab publications since the early 1980s as well. His poems have been extensively translated, and he retired from the Ministry at the end of 1997.

Haddad is also the co-founder and chairman of the Bahraini Writers' Union.

Translations Among the most prominent translations of Haddad's work are the collection علاج المسافة (“Distance Therapy”), rendered as Rimedio per la distanza in a translation to Italian by Fawzi Al Delmi by San Marco dei Giustiniani in Genoa, Italy. The American University in Cairo also launched a translation project spearheaded by John Verlenden (Professor of Rhetoric and Authorship) and Ferial Ghazoul (Professor of English Language and Comparative Literature, funding it through a $100,000 grant from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities.

Haddad's website جهة الشعر (“Jehat”) was launched in 1996 and posted Modern Standard Arabic poetry in its original form and translated into seven languages. In March 2018, however, new additions to the site were suspended due to lack of funds.

Haddad was awarded the “Arab Creativity Award” from the Lebanese Cultural Forum in Paris in 2000 and won the Al Owais Award in the poetry category in the 2000-2001 cycle. In 2017, he won the Aboul-Qacem Echebbi Award on its 2017 return to Tunisia after a hiatus since the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, along with the third Poet Mohammed Al-Thubaiti Prize in Saudi Arabia. In 2020, he was regaled at the Fifth Cairo International Forum for Arab Poetry.

Between 2008 and 2015, Haddad received four scholarships for literary residencies in Germany. He completed the book طرفة بن الوردة (“The Rose of Tarafa”) during a 2008-2011 residency at the German Commission for Cultural Exchange in Berlin, followed by a 2012 Jean-Jacques Rousseau Fellowship from the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, a 2013 grant from the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Cologne, and a 2014 PEN Centre Germany in Munich. These allowed him to complete the following freelance projects, besides the aforementioned طرفة بن الوردة: تجربتيّ (“My Experience”) أيها الفحم يا سيدي (“Oh, Sir Charcoal”) لستِ جرحاً ولا خنجراً (“You Are Neither a Wound Nor a Dagger”) نزهة الملاك (“Angel’s Outing”) فتنة السؤال (“The Sedition of Question”) النهايات تنأى (“Endings Disperse”) سماء عليلة (“An Ailing Sky”) تعديل في موسيقى الحجرة (“Revisions to Chamber Music”) مكابدات الأمل (“The Struggles of Hope”) يوميات بيت هاينريش بول (“Diary from the Heinrich Böll Foundation”) ثلاثون بحراً للغرق (“Thirty Seas of Drowning”) مثل وردةٍ تقلّد عطراً (“Like a Rose Imitating Perfume”)

Work Three phases can be distinguished in Haddad's poetic career. The first consists of his first three collections: البشارة (“Portents,” 1970), خروج رأس الحسين من المدن الخائنة (“The Exodus of Ras Al-Husayn from the Treacherous Cities,” 1972), and الدم الثاني (“The Second Blood,” 1975). In these three collections, his rhetoric and lyricism rejects the status quo and calls for revolution. The allusions are often to mythic figures such as Sisyphus, Scheherezade, Penelope, and Antarah ibn Shaddad, as well as to modern colonial resistance symbols such as Che Guevara, Vietnam, and Palestine.

The second phase includes the collections قلب الحب (“Love’s Heart”) and القيامة (“Judgment Day”), both published in 1980. These more experimentally introspective works transform the subjective ego into an objective collective one and include richer, more transcendent language. Many collections through 1991 continued to build on this theme.

The third stage builds on his interest in aesthetics, including linguistic experimentation and the use of sound, symbols, and metaphor. His 1983 collection شظايا (“Splinters”) is a long poem applying shock and tension to the lyric approach of the era.

His fourth stage centers on collaborations with artists in other media. These works include الجواشن (“Armour”), a long-form work co-written by novelist Amin Saleh; the aforementioned أخبارمجنون ليلى (“Majnun Laila,” painted by Iraqi artist Dia Azzawi and set to music by Marcel Khalife); جوه مع (“Faces”) with Bahraini painter Ebrahim Busaad, singer-songwriter Khaled El Sheikh, the poet Adunis, and the playwright Abdullah Youssef. المستحيل الأزرق (“The Blue Impossible”) with photographer Saleh al-Azzaz is a recent highlight, as are طرفة بن الوردة and أيها الفحم يا سيدي, both among his residency works and featuring the work of his photographer daughter Tufool and his composer son Mohammed.

Publications + Publication list Title Publication year Location: Publisher Number of pages Cover artist البشارة (“Portents”) 1970 (1st ed.), 1984 (2nd. ed.) Manama/Beirut: al-Sharikah al-ʻArabīyah lil-Wikālāt wa-al-Tawzīʻ (1st), Kuwait City: Dar al-Rabian (2nd) 199 (1st ed.), 198 (2nd ed.) Abdullah al-Muharraqi (1st ed.), none (2nd ed.) خروج رأس الحسين من المدن الخائنة (“The Exodus of Ras Al-Husayn from the Treacherous Cities”) 1972 Beirut: Dar al-Awda 91 Abdullah Youssef الدم الثاني (“The Second Blood”) 1975 Manama: Dar al-Ghad 112 Abdullah Youssef قلب الحب (“Love’s Heart”) 1980 Beirut: Dar Ibn Khaldun 100 Abdullah Youssef القيامة (“Judgment Day”) 1980 Beirut: Dar al-Kalima/Dar Ibn Rushd 114 Joan Miró شظايا (“Splinters”) 1981 Beirut: Dar al-Farabi 175 Salvador Dalí المسرح البحريني التجربة والافق (“The Past and Future of Bahraini Theatre”) 1981 (1st ed.), 2018 (2nd ed.) Manama: Ministry of Information/Information Affairs Authority (1st and 2nd eds.) 140 Abdullah Youssef انتماءات (“Inclinations”) 1982 Beirut: Dar al-Farabi 128 موضوعات حول العامية والشعر العامي (“Essays on Nabati Poetry,” with Abdul Rahman Rafi and Abdulqader Aqeel) 1983 Manama: Special Editions 48 النهروان (“Nahrawan,” illustrated by Jamal Hashem) 1988 (1st ed.), 1997 (2nd ed.) Al Hidd, Bahrain: Oriental Press (1st ed.), Cairo: Arab Press Agency (2nd ed.) 104 (1st ed.), 109 (2nd ed.) Jamal Hashem الجواشن (“Al-Jawashen,” with novelist Amin Saleh) 1989 (1st ed.), 1998 (2nd ed.) Casablanca: Toubkal Publishing (1st ed.), Baghdad: Dar al-Mada Publishing (2nd ed.) 177 (1st ed.), 227 (2nd ed.) Rachid Koraïchi (1st ed.), Abdullah Youssef (2nd ed.) يمشي مخفورا بالوعول (“Escorted with the Mountain Goats”) 1990 London: Riyāḍ Najīb Al-Rayyis 108 عزلة الملكات (“The Isolation of Queens”) 1991 (1st ed.), 1992 (2nd ed.) Manama: Bahrain Writers Association Kalimat Notebooks (1st ed.), Cairo: Dar al-Ghad (illustrated by Omar Jihan) (2nd ed.) 102 (1st ed.), 79 (2nd ed.) Khalid al-Hashimi (1st ed.), none (2nd ed.) البيانات (“Statements,” with Adunis, Amin Saleh, and Mohammed Bennis) 1993 (1st ed.), 1995 (2nd ed.) Manama: Bahrain Writers Association Kalimat Notebooks (1st ed.), Tunis: Dār Sirās (2nd ed.) 106 (1st ed.), 135 (2nd ed.) Khalid al-Hashimi (1st ed.), Dār Sirās staff (2nd ed.) نقد الأمل (“Criticism of Hope”) 1995 (1st ed.), 1998 (2nd ed.) Beirut: Dār al-Kunūz al-Adabīyah (1st and 2nd eds.) 147 (1st ed.), 208 (2nd ed.) Talib al-Daoud (1st ed.), Abdullah Youssef (2nd ed.) أخبار مجنون ليلى (“Majnun Laila,” illustrated by Dia Azzawi) 1996 London: Arabesque 92 Dia Azzawi قبر قاسم يسبقه فهرس المكابدات، تليه جنة الأخطاء (“Qasim’s Tomb”) 1997 (1st ed.), 2017 (2nd ed.) Manama: Dar al-Kalima (1st ed.), Amman: Dar al-Ahlia (2nd ed.) 279 (1st ed.), 367 (2nd ed.) Dia Azzawi (1st ed.), Zuhayr Abu Shayib (2nd ed.) ليس بهذا الشكل ولا بشكلٍ آخر (“Not This Way, Not That Way”) 1997 (1st ed.), 2018 (2nd ed.) Kuwait City: Qurtas (1st ed.), Kuwait City: Masarat (2nd ed.) 216 (1st ed.), 296 (2nd ed.) Abdullah Youssef (1st ed.), Mohammed al-Saleem (2nd ed.) الأعمال الشعرية (“Poetic Works,” 2 volumes) 2000 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 1176 Abdul Aziz Al-Halal علاج المسافة (“Distance Therapy”) 2000 (1st ed.), 2002 (2nd ed.) Tunis: Dar Tber Al Zaman (1st ed.), Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing/Manama: Ministry of Information (2nd ed.) 120 (1st ed.), 90 (2nd ed.) none (1st ed.), Ebrahim Busaad (2nd ed.) له حصةٌ في الولع (“He Has a Share of Fancy”) 2000 Beirut: Dar al-Intishar al-Arabi Abbas Youssef المستحيل الأزرق (“The Impossible Blue,” illustrated by photographer Saleh al-Azzaz, French and Malaysian translations by Abdellatif Laabi, English translations by Naeem Ashour) 2001 160 Saleh al-Azzaz ورشة الأمل (“The Hope Factory,” history of Muharraq) 2004 (1st ed.), 2007 (2nd ed.) Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing/Manama: Sheikh Ebrahim Center (1st and 2nd eds.) 231 (1st ed.), 292 (2nd ed.) Zuhayr Abu Shayib أيقظتني الساحرة ("The Witch Woke Me Up," (English translation by Dr. Muhammad al-Khuzai) 2004 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 160 Abbas Youssef ما أجملك أيها الذئب.. جائع وتتعفف عن الجثث (“Oh Wolf, How Beautiful You Are”) 2006 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 244 Zuhayr Abu Shayib لستَ ضيفاً على أحد (“Not a Guest Anymore”) 2007 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 168 Zuhayr Abu Shayib فتنة السؤال (“The Sedition of Question”) 2008 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 362 Zuhayr Abu Shayib دع الملاك (“Let the Angel”) 2008 Damascus: Dar Kanaan 111 Lubna Ahmad الأزرق المستحيل يليه أخبار مجنون ليلى (“The Impossible Blue/Majnun Laila”) 2009 (double re-publication) Cairo: Dar Al Nahda Al Arabeya 252 إيقاظ الفراشة التي هناك (“Awaken the Butterfly Within,” anthology) 2009 Damascus: Ninawa Publishing House 232 Hussein Fakhr الغزالة يوم الأحد (“The Sunday Gazelle,” anthology) 2010 Beirut: Dar al-Ghawoon 159 Maya Salem طرفة بن الوردة (“The Rose of Tarafa,” with Tufool and Mohammed Haddad) 2011 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 531 Zuhayr Abu Shayib مكابدات الأمل (“The Endurance of Hope”) 2012 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing/Manama: Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities 270 Zuhayr Abu Shayib لستِ جُرحاً ولا خنجراً أنتِ البكاء الطويل في الليل (“You Are Neither a Wound Nor a Dagger, Only the Long Weeping of the Night”) 2012 (1st ed.), 2014 (2nd ed.) Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization (1st ed.), Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (2nd ed.) 193 (1st ed.), 168 (2nd ed.) Ahmed al-Labbad (1st ed.), Zuhayr Abu Shayib (2nd ed.) النهايات تنأى (“Endings Disperse”) 2013 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing/Manama: Sheikh Ebrahim Center 128 Zuhayr Abu Shayib سماء عليلة (“An Ailing Sky,” anthology) 2013 Isa Town, Bahrain: Masaa Publishing 103 Tufool Haddad الأعمال النثرية (“Prose Works,” 3 volumes) 2014 Beirut/Dubai: Madarek Publishing 504 (1st vol.), 763 (2nd vol), 502 (3rd vol.) Qassim Haddad أيها الفحم يا سيدي (“Oh, Sir Charcoal,” with Tufool and Mohammed Haddad, inspired by the notebooks of Vincent van Gogh) 2015 (1st ed.), 2016 (2nd ed.) Bahrain: Masaa Publishing (1st ed.), Manama: Special Editions (2nd ed.) 417 (1st ed.), 431 (2nd ed.) Tufool Haddad يوميات بيت هاينريش بول (“Diary from the Heinrich Böll Foundation,” with photography by Tufool Haddad) 2016 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing/Manama: Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities 261 Tufool Haddad تعديل في موسيقى الحجرة (“Revisions to Chamber Music”) 2017 Amman/Ramallah: Dar al-Ahlia 208 Zuhayr Abu Shayib رشيقٌ كالوقت ولا بيتَ له (“Agile as Time and Without a Home”) 2017 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 296 Zuhayr Abu Shayib مثل وردة تقلّد عطراُ (“Like a Rose Imitating Perfume”) 2017 Kuwait City: Dar Kalemat 121 Tufool Haddad ثلاثون بحراً للغرق (“Thirty Seas of Drowning”) 2017 Milan: Al-Mutawassit 160 Khalid Nasiri رفيف الظل (“Rafif’s Shadow,” with journalists Saad Al-Dosari and Adel Khozam) 2018 Beirut/Dubai: Madarek Publishing 165 لا تصقل أصفادك (“Don’t Polish Your Handcuffs,” complete anthology) 2019 Kuwait City: Takween 271 Yousef Al-Abdullah عزلة الملكات وعلاج المسافة (“The Isolation of Queens/Distance Therapy”) 2019 (double re-publication) Dubai: Al Owais Awards Foundation 212 Tufool Haddad موسيقى الكتابة عن ايقاظ الذاكرة وصقل المرايا (“Writing Music Is about Awakening Memory and Refining Mirrors”) 2019 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 200 Zuhayr Abu Shayib ما الأمل؟ (“What Hope?”) 2020 Beirut: Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 280 Zuhayr Abu Shayib جوهرة المراصد (“Jewel Collection”) 2021 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: Rewayat Books 331 Qassim Haddad أنطولوجيا النصوص المقدسة (“The Ontology of Sacred Texts”) upcoming

Public appearances Festivals + Festival appearances Festival Year Host country 3rd Al-Marbad Poetry Festival (Baghdad) 1974 Iraq 10th Asilah Arts Festival (Asilah) 1987 Morocco Spanish-Arabic Poetry Festival (Sanaa) 1990 Yemen 14th Cairo International Film Festival 1990 Egypt Qurain Cultural Festival 1994 Kuwait 1st Arab Poetry Festival (Muscat) 1995 Oman 3rd Qurain Cultural Festival 1996 Kuwait Cairo Creative Poetry Festival 1996 Egypt Al-Babtain Spring Poetry Festival (Al-Adwani Cycle) 1996 Abu Dhabi Rabat Poetry Festival 1997 Morocco 16th Jerash Festival 1997 Jordan 5th Gulf Cooperation Council Theatre Festival 1997 Kuwait Amsterdam Immigration Foundation Arab Culture Festival 1998 Netherlands Les Voix de la Mediterranée Festival (Lodève) 1999 France Arab World Institute Spring Poetry Festival (Paris) 2000 France 2nd Arab Poetry Festival (House of Jordanian Poetry, Amman) 2001 Jordan German-Arab Poetry Festival (Sanaa) 2001 Yemen International Poetry Festival of Medellín (Medellín) 2001 Colombia 1st Jableh Cultural Festival (near Latakia) 2004 Syria 11th Qurain Cultural Festival 2004 Kuwait 26th Asilah Arts Festival 2004 Morocco 4th Al-Mutanabbi International Poetry Festival (Zurich) 2004 Switzerland 14th Amman International Theatre Festival (6th Arab Theatre and Poetry Session) 2007 Jordan 8th Karneval der Kulturen (Berlin) 2008 Germany Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World Festival (Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.) 2009 United States Jordan Festival (Amman) 2009 Jordan Poetry on the Road Festival (Bremen) 2011 Germany International Festival of Literature and of Young People's Literature 2011 Algeria 10th Les Voix de la Mediterranée Festival 2011 France 33rd Asilah Arts Festival 2011 Morocco 1st Cairo International Poetry Festival 2014 Egypt Khan al-Funoun 2016 Jordan Sharjah International Book Fair 2016 United Arab Emirates 38th Asilah Arts Festival 2016 Morocco Voix Vives de Méditerranée en Méditerranée Festival (Sète) 2017 France 50th Cairo International Book Fair Golden Jubilee 2019 Egypt 34th Jerash Festival 2019 Jordan

Seminars + Seminar appearances Seminar Year Host country Joint Cultural Work Symposium 1985 Kuwait/Saudi Arabia Georgetown University Centennial Poetry Symposium (Washington, D.C.) 1989 United States Palestinian Intifada Symposium (Sanaa) 1989 Yemen Aboul-Qacem Echebbi International Symposium (Fez) 1994 Morocco Al-Arabi Sympsoium on Arab Culture and the Prospects for Digital Publishing 2001 Kuwait Amal Abul-Qassem Donqol Symposium (Achievements and Values) (Supreme Council of Culture) 2003 Egypt UNESCO Symposium on Book Publication 2005 France Al-Babtain Symposium for Poetic Creativity 2013 Morocco

Conventions + Convention appearances Convention Year Host country 1st Lebanese Writers’ Union Conference (Beirut) 1984 Lebanon Literary Criticism Conference (Towards a New Vision of Literary Theories, University of Bahrain) 1993 Bahrain 2nd Lebanese Writers’ Union Conference (Beirut) 1994 Lebanon German-Arab Poetry Conference (Sanaa) 2000 Yemen PEN Centre Germany Conference 2012 Germany

International Conferences + International conference appearances Conference Year Host country French-Arab Poetry Encounter (Grenoble/Rabat) 1986 France/Morocco Arab Poetry Encounter (Nantes) 1990 France 1st Arab Poetry Forum 1997 Tunisia 1st Arab Cultural Forum (Beirut) 1998 Lebanon Saadi Shirazi Forum (Tehran) 2000 Iran 2nd Dar al-Mada Cultural Festival (Damascus) 2001 Syria 1st Young Arab Poets’ Forum (Sanaa): The 1990s and Prospects for Poetic Writing 2004 Yemen 3rd Cairo Forum for Creative Arab Novelists 2005 Egypt Arab Poetry Conference 2006 Morocco 5th Cairo International Forum for Arab Poetry 2020 Egypt

Studies of Haddad’s work + Critical studies Year Title Researcher Institution 1997 "تعددية الشكل في الكتابة الشعرية الحديثة - إنجاز قاسم حداد نموذجاً" (“Pluralism of Form in Modern Poetic Writing: Examples from the Work of Qassim Haddad”) Mujib Zahrani Gulf Poetry Festival (Bahrain) 1998 "الخطاب النقدي عند قاسم حداد وصلته بتجربته الشعرية - رؤية نقدية" (“Qassim Haddad’s Critical Discourse and its Connection to His Poetic Experience: A Critical Study”) Abdullah Ahmad al-Muhanna Kuwait University Journal of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies 2004 "قاسم حداد : شاعر المخيلة" (“Qassim Haddad: Poet of Imagination”) Mohammed Abdul Muttalib 26th Asilah Arts Festival 2007 "انماط الصورة في شعر قاسم حداد ديوان القيامة انموذجا" (“Visual Patterns in Qassim Haddad’s ‘Judgment Day’” Ashwaq Ghazi Safih Al-Yasiri University of Basrah Centre for Arab Studies 2013 "بنية اللغة الشعرية عند قاسم حداد" (“The Structure of Qassim Haddad’s Poetic Language”) Omar Hasan al-Ameri Yarmouk University Faculty of Arts, Department of Arabic Language and Literature 2015 "سيمياء البياض في شعر قاسم حداد" (“Decaying Whiteness in the Poetry of Qassim Haddad”) Hussein Al-Ghadiri University of Bahrain College of Arts 2016 "التعالق الاستعاري في الخطاب الشعري عند قاسم حداد (طرفة بن الوردة انموذجاً)" (“Allegory in the Poetic Discource of Qasim Haddad’s ‘The Rose of Tarafa’”) Ali Sarmad Hussein/Farhan Badri Al-Harbi University of Babylon College of Humanities 2019 "التجربة الشعرية لدى قاسم حداد" (“The Poetic Experience of Qassim Haddad”) Tariq Fattouh Nizwa Magazine 2019 "القصيدة التأويل، أو الشعر بينما يحدث: كيف ينظر قاسم حداد إلى العالم من خلال اللغة؟" (“Poetry As It Happens: How Does Qassim Haddad View the World Through Language?”) Hatem al-Zahrani Ma3a (online learning platform) 2019 "عالم قاسم حداد الشعري - دراسة نقدية" (“The World of Qassim Haddad: A Critical Study”) Abdullah Khalifa Ninawa Publishing, Damascus, Syria 2019 "أسلوبيّة تشكّل صورة الوطن ودلالتها في قصيدة “الصهيل” للشاعر قاسم حداد" (“Style’s Influence on a Nation’s Image in Qassim Haddad’s ‘The Neighing’”) Fatima Sobhi Yazbek Lebanese University Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Arabic Language and Literature 2020 "خطاب المركز والهامش في شعر قاسم حداد : دراسة في ضوء علم النص" (“Discourse Between the Center and the Margin in the Poetry of Qassim Haddad: A Study in the Light of Textual Science”) Fida al-Aidi Hashemite University College of Arts, Department of Arabic Language and Literature 2020 "الكونُ موقفٌ: الشعريّة والنبوءة في أعمال قاسم حداد" (“The Universe Is a Stance: Poetics and Prophesy in the Works of Qassim Haddad”) Miguel Merino Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies