Saadi Youssef

Saadi Youssef studied Arabic literature in Baghdad. He was influenced by the free verse of Shathel Taqa and Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayyati and was also involved in politics from an early age. At that time, his work was heavily influenced by his socialist and pan-Arab sympathies but has since also taken a more introspective, lyrical turn. He has also translated many well-known writers into Arabic, including Oktay Rifat, Melih Cevdet Anday, Garcia Lorca, Yiannis Ritsos, Walt Whitman and Constantine Cavafy. Following his exile from Iraq, Youssef has lived in many countries, including Algeria, Lebanon, France, Greece, Cyprus, and resided in London until his death.{{Cite book|title=Without an Alphabet, Without a Face|last=Youssef|first=Saadi|last2=Mattawa|first2=Khaled|publisher=Graywolf Press|year=2002|isbn=1-55597-371-X|location=Saint Paul, MN|pages=[https://archive.org/details/withoutalphabetw00yusu/page/ xi-xxiv]|translator-last=Mattawa|translator-first=Khaled|chapter=Introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/withoutalphabetw00yusu/page/}}

In 2004, the Al Owais Prize for poetry was given to Youssef. In 2007, Youssef participated in the PEN World Voices festival where he was interviewed by the Wild River Review. In 2014, Youssef's poems were forbidden from being included in the Kurdish school curriculum by the Kurdistan Regional Government over a certain poem in which he referred to Kurdistan as "Qardistan," which loosely translates to "Monkey-istan."

He is buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery.

File:Youssef, Saadi 2021.jpg]]

Published volumes

• Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selected Poems, translated by Khaled Mattawa (Graywolf, 2002). {{ISBN|1-55597-371-X}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/without-alphabet-without-face|title=Without an Alphabet, Without a Face|date=1 December 2002|website=Graywolf Press|access-date=12 January 2020}}
• Nostalgia, My Enemy, translated by Sinan Antoon and Peter Money (Graywolf, 2012). {{ISBN|978-1-55597-629-3}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/nostalgia-my-enemy|title=Nostalgia, My Enemy|date=13 November 2012|website=Graywolf Press|access-date=12 January 2020}}

In anthology

• Literature from the "Axis of Evil": Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Other Enemy Nations, edited by Words without Borders (The New Press, 2006). {{ISBN|978-1-59558-205-8}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/books/literature-from-the-axis-of-evil-writing-from-iran-iraq-north-korea-and-oth|title=Literature from the "Axis of Evil"|access-date=12 January 2020}}
• Tablet and Pen, edited by Reza Aslan (Norton, 2010). {{ISBN|978-0-39306-585-5}}.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/books/tablet-pen|title=Tablet and Pen|website=Words without Borders|access-date=12 January 2020}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/middle-east-anthology-tablet-pen-has-some-real-finds/|title=Middle East anthology ‘Tablet & Pen’ has some real finds|date=8 January 2011|website=Seattle Times|access-date=12 January 2020}}
• Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, edited by Melissa Tuckey (University of Georgia Press, 2018). {{ISBN|978-0820353159}}.{{Cite web|url=https://ugapress.org/book/9780820353159/ghost-fishing/|title=Ghost Fishing|date=1 April 2018|website=UGA Press|access-date=12 January 2020}}

• Huri, Yair. The Poetry of Sa’di Yûsuf: Between Homeland and Exile. (Sussex, 2006). {{ISBN|978-1-84519-148-1}}.

• Iraqi art
• List of Iraqi artists

{{Reflist}}

• [http://sounds.bl.uk/View.aspx?item=024M-C1340X0017XX-0000V0.xml Listen to Saadi Youssef reading his poetry] - a British Library recording, 4 March 2009.
• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209222440/http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/issue7/youssef.html |date=9 December 2007 |title=3 poems }}
• [http://www.thebluemoon.com/poetry/syoussef.shtml Two poems]
• [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/bsc17.htm Spiral of Iraqi memory] review of Without an Alphabet at Al-Ahram
• [http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9512 Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef on 'bullet censorship'] at Socialist Worker

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Category:1934 births

Category:2021 deaths

Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery

Category:20th-century Iraqi writers

Category:20th-century Iraqi poets

Category:People from Basra

Category:British people of Iraqi descent

Category:21st-century Iraqi poets

Category:21st-century Iraqi writers

Category:British Arabic-language poets

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