Mahmoud Darwish

In Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet’s Art and His Nation, Mattawa pays tribute to one of the most celebrated and well-read poets of our era. With detailed knowledge of Arabic verse and a firm grounding in Palestinian history, Mattawa explores the ways in which Darwish’s aesthetics have played a crucial role in shaping and maintaining Palestinian identity and culture through decades of warfare, attrition, exile, and land confiscation. Mattawa chronicles the evolution of his poetry, from a young poet igniting resistance in occupied land to his decades in exile where his work grew in ambition and scope. In doing so, Mattawa reveals Darwish’s verse to be both rooted to its place of longing and to transcend place, as it reaches for the universal and the human.

Written with fluidity that does justice to the poet he analyzes, Khaled Mattawa's Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet's Arts and His Nation is a superbly constructed book that contextualizes Darwish's language, aesthetics, structures, and devices. Mattawa treats these complexities with tremendous skill, framing his critique of Darwish in a larger framework of poetry's role in the political and cultural discourses that shaped Palestinian identity.-- "Steven Salaita, author of Modern Arab American Fiction: A Reader's Guide"

Born and raised in Libya, Khaled Mattawa immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He is assistant professor in the English Department at the University of Michigan. He is the author of several books of poetry, including Tocqueville and Amorisco.