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Mahmoud Darwish, Exile's Poet: Critical Essays

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Arguably the most important Palestinian poet of our time, Mahmoud Darwish appears for the first time in English in "Exile's Poet", deftly edited by professors of modern Arabic culture and comparative literatures respectively Hala Khamis Nassar & Najat Rahman it offers a critical appraisal of Darwish's work as well, from his earliest works to his later work, filled with connections between myth, lyric, prose, and history among other things. The Editors bring in editorials on the future of poetry, roles of the modern poet, heritage and more. Highly recommended to poetry fans who want an in depth look from another place in the world.

Mahmoud Darwish: Exile's Poet has an excellent Foreword by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, who is a scholar of longstanding in the field of Arabic literary criticism and has special empathy with Mahmoud Darwish's writing. Mahmoud Darwish is a poet loved by Palestinians and whom they call their "national poet". The book includes a collection of articles by scholars from around the world who have made a sincere attempt to write about a difficult subject and one on which there is very little available even in Arabic. I especially liked Reuven Snir's long article titled: "Other Barbarians Will Come: Intertextuality, Meta-Poetry and Meta-Myth in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry". Snir, a scholar of international reknown in the field of Arabic literary criticism, has lived through many of the times and events in Mahmoud Darwish's life and, as does Jayyusi, relates to his writings.