Ghassan Zaqtan

He was born in 1954 in Beit Jala, West Bank. His father, Khalil Zaqtan, was a poet.^[1] From 1960 to 1967, he lived at Karameh. He graduated from Teachers Training College, Nu'ur, Jordan. From 1973 to 1979, he was a physical education teacher. He was editor of El-Bayader.^[2] He was director general of Literature and Publishing Department, of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.^[3] He was the editor of Al-Shu’ara from 2000 to 2004 and director of the House of Poetry.^[4] He is a consultant for cultural policies in the Welfare Association and is a member of the executive board of the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation. Zaqtan writes a weekly column in Al-Ayyam newspaper. His work appeared in Triquarterly.^[5] He lives in Ramallah.^[6]

In 2012, a reading at the New York State Writers Institute was canceled after visa delays.^[7]

In 2013, he was denied an entry visa to Canada.^[8] After a protest by prominent writers,^[9] his visa was granted.^[10]

“Reading Fady Joudah’s remarkable translations of Zaqtan, I was thinking of the great poet and mythmaker of Yugoslavia, Vasko Popa, who also saw violence and wrote the dream-time of his nation. Like Popa, Zaqtan is unafraid to claim his roots, but also to see the “secret builders Cavafy had awakened / passing through the hills,” digging by his pillow. For this bravery and lyric skill, I am grateful.”—Ilya Kaminsky

Griffin Poetry Prize 2013

Judges’ Citation “What does poetry do? Nothing and everything, like air, water, soil, like birds, fish, trees, like love, spirit, our daily words … It lives with us, in and outside us, everywhere, all the time, and yet, we are too often oblivious of this gift. It’s a poet’s job to bring this gift out and back, this gift that makes us human again. And Mr. Zaqtan has done it. His poetry awakens the spirits buried deep in the garden, in our hearts, in the past, present and future. His singing reminds us why we live and how, in the midst of war, despair, global changes. His words turn dark into light, hatred into love, death into life. His magic leads us to the clearing where hope becomes possible, where healing begins across individuals, countries, races … and we are one with air, water, soil, birds, fish, trees … our daily words pregnant with beauty, and we begin to sing again till ‘ ... the singer / and the song / are alike (Biography in Charcoal)’. This is Mr. Zaqtan’s only ‘profession’. It's now also ours. About the translation: as a translator of poetry myself, I know the danger, frustration and the joy in the process of catching the fire from the original and delivering it through/into another language, another culture, another sentiment. Mr. Joudah delivered with such grace and power. My salute to Mr. Joudah, as translator to translator, as poet to poet, as doctor to doctor." – Wang Ping - See more at: http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/awards-and-poets/shortlists/2013-shortlist/fady-joudah/#sthash.hg6NWfAW.dpuf

Poetry

• Early Morning (1980) • Old Reasons (1982) • Flags (1984) • The Heroism of Things (1988) • Ordering Descriptions: Selected Poems (1998) • Not for my Sake (1990) • Luring the Mountain (1999) • A Biography by Coal (2003) • Like a Straw Bird it Follows Me (2008) • The Silence That Remains (Copper Canyon Press, 2017)

Novels

• Light Sky (1992) • Describing the Past (1995) • Old Carriage with Curtains (2011)

Plays

• Light Sky (2005)

Poetry Anthology

Le poeme palestinien contemporain (French Edition)

• Ghassan Zaqtan (24 April 2012). Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: And Other Poems. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17316-1. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

• "Ghassan Zaqtan". PBS. March 22, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
• "Black Horses". jehat.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-12. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
• http://www.al-bayader.com/