Youssef Bazzi
is a young poet and journalist, well-known in Beirut. He was born in Beirut in 1966 and worked as a journalist in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. In his teens he joined one of the fighting militia groups to fight in the Lebanese civil war, fleeing to Africa in 1986. He now lives back in Beirut and works in the culture section of al-Mustaqbal, a Lebanese daily newspaper.
He has four poetry collections, and has been awarded the Yousef al-Khal Poetry Prize. In 2005, his fast-paced narrative Yasser Arafat Looked at me and Smiled describing the inveigling horrors of civil war and militiia life, was published in Arabic and English (translated by Rasha Salti).
See the review of Yasser Arafat Looked at me and Smiled in Banipal No 25.
Contributor's Issues
Banipal No 28 Spring 2007
Banipal No 36 Literature in Yemen Today
Latest News
18/02/2010Remembering Tayeb Salih, who died last year on 18 February.
[read more]11/01/2010
The winner of the 2009 Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation is Samah Selim for her translation of The Collar and the Bracelet by the late Yahya Taher Abdullah.
[read more]15/12/2009
The ARAB BOOKER PRIZE Short List titles and authors was announced at the Beirut Book Fair last December
[read more]29/11/2009
January 2010 – an innovative and intensive workshop for Arabic to English and English to Arabic literary translation – fiction and plays
[read more]26/11/2009
The Dissolving Cube Exhibition, 26 Nov to 5 Dec, includes film of Moroccan poet Hassan Najmi reading poem "The Cape"
[read more]16/11/2009
The 16 titles and authors on the Long List of the 2009-2010 International Prize for Arabic Fiction were announced in Cairo today . . .
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