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Fawzi Karim

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  • Fawzi Karim (1945 - 2019) was a well-known Iraqi poet, writer and painter. Born in Baghdad in 1945, he was educated at Baghdad University before embarking on a career as a freelance writer. He lived in Lebanon from 1969-1972 and has lived in London since 1978.The Ivory Tower, his column on poetry and European classical music has appeared in a number of influential Arabic newspapers and is respected for its emphasis on the transcendent value of art and culture. He has published more than twenty three books of poetry, including a two volume Collected Poems (2000), The Foundling Years (2003), The Last Gypsies (2005), Night of Abel Alaa (2008), The Empty Quarter (2014) and What The poetry is, but a Slip of The Tongue (2016). He is also the author of sixteen books of prose, including The Emperor's Clothes: On Poetry (2000), Diary of The End of a Nightmare (2005), Gods the Companion, on music (2009), Pastures of Cactus, short stories (2015). The Music and Poetry (2014), The Music and Painting (2014) and a novel Who is Afraid of The Copper City (2016). His poetry is translated to many languages, including French, Sweden, Italian and English. Carcanet published his first selection Plague Lands and Other poems (2011), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for 2011. He died in 2019, aged 73, and is survived by his wife, Lily Altai, whom he married in 1981, two sons, Sammer and Basil, and two grandchildren, Maya and Layla.
    'Karim is a poet for our times, with his strong yet beautiful voice, his indignation...and the haunting memories of certain lines that seem intended for all of us, but that few can hear in the endless tumult of what is called life'

    James Kirkup

    'Fawzi Karim is an exemplary poet and one who, pursuing his own vision, has created a body of work that reflects yet transcends the circumstances of his life.'

    David Cooke, London Grip  


    'Fragments of the present with tangential references to the old stories... These are poems of the self, a turn toward not just the past but the deep past, the past of myth'
    Jessica Sequeira, Berfrois
    'This is clearly a major poet.'
    John Welch, Tears in the Fence
    Awards won by Fawzi Karim Short-listed, 2021 The Sarah Maguire Prize
    (Incomprehensible Lesson)
    Commended, 2011 A Poetry Book Society Recommendation (Plague Lands and other poems)
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