At Jacket2, Introduction to Mohamed Saghir Ouled Ahmed

At Jacket2 Brahim El Guabli introduces Mohamed Saghir Ouled Ahmed, Tunisian poet, to readers. According to El Guabli, Ahmed is "probably Tunisia's most prominent Arabic poet today." The post appears in a new section of the site curated by Tsitsi Jaji called "Good News from Africa." More:

Mohamed Saghir Ouled Ahmed (b. 1955) is probably Tunisia's most prominent Arabic poet today. His birth in the southern city of Sidi Bouzid, which was the breeding ground of the December 2010 Tunisian Revolution, further consecrated his status as Tunisia's contemporary, “conscience of the nation.” During his long career, which he began at the age of fourteen, Ouled Ahmed produced at least five collections of poetry: The Rhapsody of the Six Days (1988), But I Am Ahmad (1989), I Have No Problem (1989), The South of the Water (1991) and The Will (2000). Building on his deep involvement in the Tunisian revolution, he recently published his (poetico)diaries with the evocative title The Poetic Leadership of the Tunisian Revolution (2013). While his literary and poetic experience has received great acclaim throughout the Maghreb and the Middle East, the bulk of his poetic output remains inaccessible to readers in English. In addition to composing poetry, Ouled Ahmed has also forecefully advocated for the renewal of the language of poetic criticism in Arabic. Finally, before the Ministry of Culture under Ben Ali ousted him from its leadership, Ouled Ahmed conceived and established the House of Poetry (Bayt al-Shir'r), which is a concept that has been successfully adopted in North Africa and the Middle East.

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