|
Yassin Adnan c_privat
|
Yassin Adnan (born in 1970 in Safi, Morocco) studied English Literature and Education at the University of Marrakesh and the Mohammad V University in Rabat and subsequently worked as an English teacher. Today he is known for his weekly cultural programme Macharif on the Moroccan TVM television channel, which was voted Best Cultural Programme in 2007 and 2008. He also works for Moroccan radio, as a correspondent for the Lebanese daily newspaper al-Akhbar and the magazine Dubai al-thaqafiya, and in the editorial team of the Lebanese cultural magazine Zawaya.
Adnan is a co-editor of the literary journal Aswat mu‘asira, the journal al-Ghara al-shi‘riyya, mouthpiece of the new voices in poetry in the 1990s, and of the renowned Internet portal for Arabic poetry jehat.com. He has received several literary prizes for his verse.
What distinguishes him from other poets of his generation in the Arabic world is his simple and spontaneous language. He does not try to blind his readers with metaphors and rhetorical figures, but uses elements of prose, so that long poems are created which are held together by the intuition of a story. The poems are notable for their desperate tone and their dark and yet life-affirming attitude.
In 2008 he published together with Sa‘d Sarhan Marakish: asrar mu’lana (Marrakesh: Announced Secrets), a literary text bearing the features of his home town, in which prose and poetry, reflection and narration, reality and legend merge. His latest novel Hot Maroc was longlisted for the 2016 Arabic Booker Prize.
Publications (a selection):
Hot Maroc (novel). Cairo 2016
La akad ara (I can hardly see; poems). Beirut 2007
Tuffah al-zill (Shadow Apples; short stories). Casablanca 2006
Rasif al-qiyama (Pavement of Resurrection; poems). 2003
Man yusaddiq al-rasa'il? (Who believes the letters?; short stories). Cairo 2001
Mannequins. Casablanca 2000