Hello sunshine of my country
how good it is to be alive today
so much light
so much light around me
Abdellatif Laâbi
ABDELLATIF LAÂBI is a poet, novelist, playwright, translator, and political activist. He was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1942. In the 1960s, Laâbi was the founding editor of Souffles, or Breaths, a widely influential literary review that was banned in 1972, at which point Laâbi was imprisoned for eight and a half years. Laâbi’s most recent accolades include the Prix Goncourt de la Poésie for his Oeuvres complètes in 2009, and the Académie Française’s Grand Prix de la Francophonie in 2011. His work has been translated into Arabic, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Turkish and English. Laâbi himself has translated into French the works of Mahmoud Darwish, Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, Mohammed Al-Maghout, Saâdi Youssef, Abdallah Zrika, Ghassan Kanafani, and Qassim Haddad.
The Poem Under Gag by Abdellatif Laâbi
THE JACKAL’S BAPTISM by Abdellatif Laâbi (translated by Gordon Hadfield and Nancy Hadfield)
DRAMATIS PERSONAE Sycophant 1 : : Sycophant 2 : : Sycophant 3 : : High Priestess : : Madwoman 1 : : Madwoman 2 Madwoman 3 : : General : : Victor : : Blind Poet : : Neanderthal Man 1 : : Neanderthal Woman 1 Neanderthal Man 2 : : Neanderthal Woman 2 : […]
Contributor Bios for Issue 1 Spring 2009
Issue 1 Spring 2009 V. JOSHUA ADAMS is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Chicago and editor of Chicago Review. JOE AMATO‘s recent books include Pain Plus Thyme (Factory School 2008) and Industrial Poetics: Demo Tracks for a Mobile Culture (Iowa 2006). His memoir, Once an Engineer: A Song of the Salt City, is forthcoming later […]
MAYDAY Magazine: Issue 1 Spring 2009
FEATURED ARTIST David-Baptiste Chirot NECESSITY IS THE MOTHERFUCKER OF INVENTION thoughts on the delete button THE NEW EXTREME EXPERIMENTAL AMERICAN POETRY a gallery featuring the visual works of poet, artist, and human rights activist David-Baptiste Chirot Jared Schickling, David-Baptiste Chirot FINDING THE ROOOT an interview conducted by Jared Schickling with David-Baptiste Chirot that will […]