Haus für Poesie

Fouad EL-Auwad (*1965 Damaskus, Syrien) lebt er als freier Schriftsteller, Publizist und Übersetzer in Bonn. Im Jahr 2004 gründete er den "lyrik-salon", der deutsche und arabische Lyrik in verschiedenen Städten in Deutschland und Syrien präsentiert. Seine Dichtung beschäftigt sich mit universalen Themen, die über die aktuelle Situation hinaus relevant sind und existenzielle Fragen berühren. Eine zentrale Rolle spielen darin die Natur und ihre Elemente, verbunden mit Motiven aus Philosophie, Religion und Mythos.

Nouri Jarah (born 1956 in Damascus, Syria) is a poet who has been founder, editor and critic for many literary journals in Beirut, Cyrus, London and the United Arab Emirates. He is also the co-founder of the recently-founded alternative Syrian Writers‘ Association. With his first book of verse (1982) he became part of the new wave of prose poetry, in which he was a major figure along with Abbas Beydoun, Bassam Hajjar and Salim Barakat. In all the changes his poetry has gone through, not least with changes of location, one thing has remained constant – the childlike perspective of a direct gaze stripping away outward appearance, giving very personal access to questions of poetry, the world, love and time. Nouri Jarah lives between London and the den United Arab Emirates.   Publications (selection): الصبي (The Boy), 1982 طفولة موت (Childhood of a Death), 1992 كأس سوداء (A Black Glass), 1993  حدائق هاملت(Hamlet’s Gardens), 2003 الاعمال الشعرية الكاملة(Collected Works, 2 Vols.), 2008

Amer Matar (born in 1986 in Raqqa, Syria), graduated in journalism from the University of Damascus and has been writing for the Syrian and international press since 2002. Since 2010 he has been the cultural correspondent in Damascus of the London-based al-Hayat daily newspaper. During the revolution he worked using a pseudonym as a correspondent for the TV channel Al-Arabiyya and made several short documentaries for various channels. His documentary Azadi (Freedom) on the role of the Kurdish minority in the Syrian revolution was honoured at the Arabic Film Festival in Rotterdam in 2011. He has also led projects producing documentaries on current topics in various regions of Syria. He has been imprisoned twice because of his activities. He has been a fellow of the Heinrich Böll Foundation since March 2012.