Poet

Fatima Zahra Bennis

(Morocco, 1973)

Biography

Fatima Zahra Bennis' fifth book of poetry, ‘Ala Sahwati l jeem (Riding the Letter J), is forthcoming. Her first poems were published in Moroccan and Arabic print media as early as the 1990’s, when she was in her twenties, and in 2008 she won the Poetry Award from the Noor Institution for Creative Writing and Culture. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Romanian, French, and English, and appeared in many European poetry anthologies.

The poet is an active member of the Society of Friends of Lorca; the Union of Moroccan Writers, where she holds the position of counselor in charge of festival coordination; and the League of Arab Creative Writers. Bennis has participated in international cultural events including the Mediterranean Women Poets Forum, Algeciras, Spain, 2008, the Arab Poetry Festival, Alsuwayda, Syria, 2010, as well as festivals in Seville, Spain, in 2012, the Jarash Festival for Culture and Arts, in Jordan, in 2013, and poetry festivals in Malaysia, in 2013, and Romania, in 2015. The poems in this issue of PIW are taken from her most recent book, On the Edge of a Fleeting Life:

I recall only a blooming garden
A soil that couldn’t have enough of my running
And a sun that conspired with my lying
I remember only Virginia Woolf’s room
A lesson on love
And another lesson on madness.

                                                           ‘Forgetting’

BOOKS
Law’atu al Hurub/The Anguish of Escape, Matbaat Chouikh, Tetouan, Morocco, 2004.
Bayna Dira’ay Qamar/In the Arms of a Moon, Malamih, Cairo, Egypt, 2008.
Taifu Nabee/The Spectre of a Prophet, al Ghaoun, Beirut, Lebanon, 2011.
‘Ala Hafati ‘umrin Harib/On the Edge of a Fleeting Life, Dar El Badaoui, Tunis, Tunisia, 2016.

LINKS
Video a reading
In Spanish
Crear en Salamanca 2017
Luz Cultural magazine 2015

Poems

All by myself Forgetting FROM A PAPER BALCONY The fragrance of violets

Poems

Poems of Fatima Zahra Bennis

Partners

LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère

Fatima Zahra Bennis