Saniya Salih
(1939-1995)
Saniya Salih was born in town of Misyaf, northern Syria. Her mother died at an early age, an event which left a deep mark on her life and poetry. In most of her poems, the mother figure tends to emerge, indicative of the plight of women in the Arab world (“my body is besieged by raiding ghosts”). Some of her poems appeared in two avant-garde poetry magazines during the sixties and seventies, namely Shi’r and Mawaqif. She died from cancer of the blood in 1995, leaving behind two daughters, many unfinished poems and two poetry collections, Azzaman al-Dhaik [A Time of Oppression] which appeared in 1964 and Hibr al-Idam [Ink of Execution] in 1970. She struggled to free herself from cancer and marriage, suffering internally under the shadow of her husband, the well-known Syrian poet Mohammad al-Maghut (1934-2006).
Contributor's Issues
Banipal No 23 Summer 2005
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]