Introduction to Soleïman Adel Guémar
Soleïman Adel Guémar is about the same age as the independent republic of Algeria. He worked there as a freelance journalist, investigating human rights violations and corruption, until 2002, when he claimed political asylum in the UK following threats to his life connected with his efforts to found an independent publishing house. He now lives in south Wales. ‘Eyes closed’ belongs to a slowly growing body of work written in exile. Poems he wrote in Algeria, originally published in diverse newspapers and magazines there and in France, are collected in State of Emergency (Arc Publications: Visible Poets series, 2007) – French originals with English verse translations by Tom Cheesman and John Goodby. The book won an English PEN Writers in Translation award. As Lisa Appignanesi remarked in her introduction: ‘Britain has inadvertently inherited a political poet of stature, one whose language sings . . .’. A volume of Adel Guémar’s prose – stories, satires and parables from Algeria, translated by Tom Cheesman – has just been published by Hafan Books in Swansea under the title Local Therapy (see: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/hafan).
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