Najwan Darwish

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Najwan Darwish
A Portrait by Véronique Vercheval
A Portrait by Véronique Vercheval
Born (1978-12-08) December 8, 1978 (age 45)
Jerusalem, Palestine
Occupation
  • Poet
  • chief cultural editor
Notable works
  • Nothing More to Lose
  • Exhausted on the Cross
Notable awards
  • Sarah Maguire Award for Poetry (2022)
  • Cilento International Poetry Prize (2023)
  • Nominated as a finalist for IV Premi Mediterrani Albert Camus (2024)
Website
www.najwandarwish.com

Najwan Darwish (Arabic: نجوان درويش); born December 8, 1978, in Jerusalem, is a Palestinian poet, whom the New York Review of Books has described as "one of the foremost Arabic-language poets".[1]

In 2009, Hay Festival Beirut pronounced him one of the 39 best Arab writers under the age of 40.[2] In 2014, NPR included his book Nothing More To Lose as one of the best books of the year.[3] Named as "one of Arabic literature’s biggest new stars" Darwish's work has been translated into over 20 languages.[4][5]

Career[edit]

Besides being a prominent poet, Darwish is a leading cultural editor in the Arab world. He has played an important role in developing Arabic cultural journalism by co-founding independent magazines and mainstream daily newspapers, as well as being a sharp critic.[6] He was the chief editor of Min Wa Ila (from/to) Magazine in Palestine,[7] and the cultural critic for Al Akhbar newspaper in Lebanon from 2006 to 2012, amongst other key positions in cultural journalism. In 2014 he became the founding chief editor of the cultural section of Al Araby Al Jadeed (The New Arab), a major pan-Arab daily newspaper based in London.[8]

Darwish is active in diverse media, culture and art projects in Palestine and the Arab world. He was the literary advisor of MASARAT Palestine, the Palestinian Cultural and Artistic Year in Belgium (2007-2008) alongside the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who was the head of the committee.[9] He was the literary advisor to the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest).[10]

Works and translations[edit]

Selected books in Arabic[edit]

Title Year Publisher ISBN
The Closer I Got to the Storm

(Arabic original: كُلّما اقتربتُ من عاصِفة)

2018 Al-Feel Publications (دار الفيل)

& Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر)

9786144198902
Exhausted on the Cross

(Arabic original: تَعِبَ المُعلَّقون)

2018 Al-Feel Publications (دار الفيل)

& Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر)

9786144199053
Once We Woke Up in Heaven

(Arabic original: استيقَظنا مَرَّةً في الجَنَّة)

2020 Al-Feel Publications (دار الفيل)

& Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر)

9786144861530
A Chair on the Wall of Akka

(Arabic original: كُرسيّ على سُور عَكّا)

2021 Al-Feel Publications (دار الفيل)

& Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر)

9786144861547

Selected books in English[edit]

Title Year Publisher ISBN
Nothing More to Lose 2014 New York Review Books 9781590177303
Embrace 2020 The Poetry Translation Centre 9781916114128
Exhausted on the Cross 2021 New York Review Books 9781681375526

Selected books in Spanish[edit]

Title Year Publisher ISBN
Nada más que perder

(English: Nothing more to lose)

2016 Valparaíso Ediciones 9788416560424
Durmiendo en Gaza

(English: Sleeping in gaza)

2017 Valparaíso México 9786078437108
No Eres Poeta en Granada

(English: You are not a poet in Granada)

2018 Sonámbulos Ediciones 9788494653483
Exhausto en la Cruz

(English: Exhausted on the Cross)

2022 Vaso Roto 9788412519778
Nada más que Perder

(English: Nothing More to Lose)

2024 Vaso Roto 9788419693617

Critical reception[edit]

Issa J. Boullata, the acclaimed critic, described Darwish's work as "a welcome change in poetic writing in Arabic".[11]

"...A voice simultaneously so passionate and so matter-of-fact that it stops the breath [...] I should warn you, perhaps, imaginary reader whose life differs so much from mine — whatever your views, politics, past experiences or lack of them — it will be impossible, by the time you have finished reading this collection, to escape a connection to Palestine." -Amal El-Mohtar, Nothing More To Lose' Forges A Connection To Palestine, NPR

"...This wide range of voices is behind much of Darwish's remarkable success as a poet: no Palestinian has ever written poetry quite like this before." -Kareem James Abu-Zeid, translator of Nothing More to Lose, No Palestinian Has Ever Written Poetry Quite Like This Before, ArabLit

"Resistance is constant in the blood and in the memory --- but this poetry, ferocious as it can be, is also a lyrical, human acceptance of the antagonist, of the antagonists -- even those, for evil never sleeps, of the very own party, on the very own Soil. Such poetry does not play games, linguistic, critical, theoretical, does not address itself to the academies, but goes straight to the heart, straight to the point. And, on every page, in every line, the Lyric voice, the moving, self-questioning power, predominates."-Nathaniel Tarn, TO: Najwan Darwish, Lute & Drum

"...One of Arabic literature’s biggest new stars." -Sarah Irving, The edgily modern poetry of Najwan Darwish, Electronic Intifada

“While his poetry is at times political, it embodies a universal message reminiscent of the great mystical poetry like Rumi.” -Emily Dische-Becker, Najwan Darwish, Poetry International

"Unlike Mahmoud Darwish, Najwan Darwish’s poems on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict venture beyond the quiet meditation or elegy [...] Darwish stretches Rimbaud’s idea into ethnic identity. At various times, the speaker identifies as not only Palestinian but Kurd, Amazigh, Armenian, Arab, Sephardic Jew, Syrian, and Ancient Egyptian, to name a few, encompassing diaspora groups across ethnicities, religions, histories, and nationalities." -Eric Dean Wilson, Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish, The Rumpus

"Darwish unfolds his identity—personal and collective, Arab and universal. His poetry, like his city of birth Jerusalem, reveals a composite of histories. The people and places they contain seem to possess undisclosed details, and as readers uncover them piece by piece, they reveal a tapestry only Darwish could have woven." -Nathalie Handal, Kareem James Abu-Zeid: A Search for Justice and Expansive Identities by Nathalie Handal, Guernica Mag

"What Najwan Darwish is giving us here is an attempt at a new definition both of resistance and of what it means to be an Arab. The term Arab here is expanded seemingly indefinitely to include Kurds, Armenians, Iranians, Turks, etc. But this politics of inclusion does not shy away from decrying injustices." -Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Kareem James Abu-Zeid: A Search for Justice and Expansive Identities by Nathalie Handal, Guernica Mag

"The dynamic range of atmospheres, emotions, ideas, and perspectives with which Darwish engages in Nothing More to Lose does much to do justice to the complex, liminal body Palestine." -Adam Day, The Body Palestine: A Review of Najwan Darwish's Nothing More To Lose, Kenyon Review

Selected anthologies[edit]

  • In Ramallah, Running By Guy Mannes-Abbott, Black Dog Publishing, London, 2012. ISBN 978-1907317675.
  • Printemps Arabes, Le Souffle et les Mots By Gilles Kraemer & Alain Jauson, Riveneuve Editions, France, 2012. ISBN 978-2360130849.
  • Voix Vives de Méditerranée en Méditerranée, Anthologie Sète 2011 Éditions Bruno Doucey, Paris, 2011. ISBN 978-2-36229-019-0.
  • Revolutionary Poets Brigade Edited by Jack Hirschman, Caza de Poesia, California, 2010
  • Beirut39 Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2010
  • Wherever I Lie Is Your Bed (Two Lines World Writing in Translation) Edited by Margaret Jull Costa and Marilyn Hacker, Center for the Art of Translation, San Francisco, 2009. ISBN 978-1931883160.
  • Language for A New Century, Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond By Tina Chang. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2008. ISBN 978-0393332384.
  • Le Poème Palestinien Contemporain, Le Taillis Pré, Belgium, 2008
  • Palabras Por la Lectura Edited by Javier Pérez Iglesias, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, 2007
  • Pères by Taysir Batniji, with texts by Catherine David and Najwan Darwish, Loris Talmart, Paris, 2007. ISBN 978-2903911843.
  • En Tous Lieux Nulle Part Ici: Une Anthologie Edited by Henri Deluy, Le Blue Ciel, Coutras, 2006. ISBN 978-2915232325.

Interviews[edit]

Throughout his two decades long literary career Darwish has rarely given interviews. When he was asked by the Polish magazine Katowice about this he responded with, “I say what I want to say in my poems. My true self is in them.”[12]

Further interviews include:

Videos[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Nothing More To Lose". New York Review Books.
  2. ^ "Najwan Darwish". Poetry International Rotterdam. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Nothing More To Lose". National Public Radio. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  4. ^ Winstanley, Asa (2014-05-27). "The edgily modern poetry of Najwan Darwish". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  5. ^ "Najwan Darwish". Poetry Translation Centre. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
  6. ^ "سعيد عقل.. في ديوان العرب رغم أنفه". Al Araby Al Jadeed. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  7. ^ Adnan, Amani. "Najwan". Prezi. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  8. ^ Handal, Nathalie (21 August 2014). "Kareem James Abu-Zeid: A Search for Justice and Expansive Identities". Guernica. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  9. ^ "Masarat / Palestine". CENTRE WALLONIE-BRUXELLES PARIS. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  10. ^ "Participants". PalFest. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  11. ^ Boullata, Issa (23 February 2015). "Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish". World Literature Today. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  12. ^ "Najwan Darwish: Moje życie stało się tekstem, już go nie mam". Katowice. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
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