Fifteen Iraqi Poets

Editor: Dunya Mikhail

Publisher: New Directions (2013)

Contributors: Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, Nazik al-Malaika, Abdul Wahab al-Bayati, Mahmoud al-Braikan, Yousif al-Sa'igh, Sargon Boulus, Saadi Yousef, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Sherko Bekas, Hasab al-Sheikh Ja'afar, Ronny Someck, Taleb Abd al-Aziz, Ra'ad Abdul Qadir, Abdulzahra Zeki, and Siham Jabbar

Fifteen Iraqi Poets compiles fifteen poems, each written by a different, prominent twentieth-century Iraqi poet. Selected, with commentary, by award-winning Iraqi-American poet, Dunya Mikhail, this little anthology is the perfect introduction to a glorious literature that traces its roots back to ancient Sumer—a poetry written by those who have lived through a state of continuous wars and massacres, their laments often opening with a plea to their destroyed homeland, “O Iraq.”