Wijdan Al-Sayegh

Wijdan Alsayegh (Arabic: وجدان الصائغ) is an Iraqi writer, poet, and critic born in Baghdad in 1967. She earned a master's degree with a grade of excellence in 1992 from University of Mosul on her thesis (the Rhetorical image in the poetry of Omar Abu Risha). Local and Arabic magazines have published tens of her poetry and studies and she is currently the managing editor of the New Poetry Magazine – Middle Eastern studies department in Michigan, United States. Wijdan Alsayegh is the president of the Arab American Poetry House Association.

Early life The Iraqi poet, writer, and critic Wijdan Al-Sayegh was born in Baghdad in 1967. She earned a master's degree with a grade of excellence in 1992 from University of Mosul on her thesis (the Rhetorical image in the poetry of Omar Abu Risha). She also earned a doctorate degree from the same university in rhetorical criticism in 1995 on her dissertation (Imagery in the poetry of al-Akhtal al-Saghir). She also earned a diploma in media studies in 2001 from the University of Colorado in the United States. Al-Sayegh started teaching in 1992 and supervised numerous M.A theses of which the last were Character Portrayal in Muhammed al-Shurafi's Literature, Heritage in the Poetry of Hassan al-Sharafi, and the Poetry of Umara al-Yamani: A Stylistic Reading, College of Arts, Thamar University, 2005–2006. Arabic and local magazines published tens of her poems and studies, and she is currently the managing editor of the New Poetry Magazine and the Arabic Journal – middle eastern studies department in Michigan, United States. She was a member of the evaluative committee of the President of Yemen's Prize for Poetry for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006 and a member of the Al Owais Cultural Award for Poetry committee in the years 2015 and 2016.

Awards

Laureate of Women's Literary Creation, Sharjah, November 1998, for her book the Rhetorical Image in Feminist Texts from the United Arab Emirates Al-Afif Cultural Award for Literature, Sana’a, April 2003, for her book the Throne and the Hoopoe: Exegetical Analogies of Images in Yemeni Poetic Discourse Her book The Lotus Flower was selected for distribution at the Bahraini Cultural Forum in its new location, January, 2002 She got awarded the Testimonial Plaque of the Mu’assasat al-Muthaqqaf al-‘Arabi for her career as a critic, Cairo, 2004