Buland al-Haydari
(1929-1996) was born in north Iraq on September 26, 1926, moving to Baghdad as a boy. He started writing poetry in Kurdish and then turned to Arabic. Involved in left-wing politics, he was jailed in 1963 and put under a death sentence, only his reputation as a poet saving his life. He then lived in Lebanon until 1976 when he returned to Baghdad. He left Iraq when Saddam Hussein came to power, settling in London, where he co-founded the Union of Iraqi Democrats. He published twelve collections of poems plus three editions of his collected works. His poems have been published in English translation in many poetry anthologies.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal No 18 Autumn 2003
Latest News
06/02/2012At a celebration of literary translation on Monday 6 February at Kings Place, Khaled Mattawa will receive the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
[read more]03/02/2012
The Mosaic Rooms celebrates theartistic and poetic works of the great Syrian poet Adonis with talks and events from 3-8 February and an exhibition of Adonis's collages from 3 February until 30 March. The opening evening this Friday sees Adonis in conversation with Khaled Mattawa who is the winner of the 2011 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for his translation Adonis: Selected Poems.
[read more]16/01/2012
Khaled Mattawa wins the 2011 Saif Ghobash-Banipal Translation Prize for Adonis:Selected Poems
[read more]12/01/2012
Chair of IPAF Judges Georges Tarabichi announces the shortlist authors of the 2012 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
[read more]09/01/2012
Banipal Book Club's first book for discussion is The Tobacco Keeper by Ali Bader.
[read more]08/01/2012
Ibrahim Aslan, one of Egypt's best-loved authors, has died of heart failure at the age of 77.
[read more][read all news stories]