The Patrons
Saadi Yousef, Patron
Saadi Yousef is one of the most important poets and translators alive today. Born in Basra, Iraq in 1934, he has published more than forty volumes of poetry and prose. His precise, understated, lyrical poetry has had a profound impact on the development of contemporary poetry in Arabic. He is also a leading translator of literature into Arabic, introducing writers such as Ngugi wa Thiongo, Wole Soyinka, Walt Whitman, Vasco Popa and Constantine Cavafy to Arabic readers. Forced to leave Iraq in 1979, he has since lived in exile in Europe and the Middle East, settling in west London in 1999. A selection of his poems, Without an Alphabet, Without a Face, translated by Khaled Mattawa, was published by Graywolf in 2002.
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