Yemeni poet Al-Maqaleh wins Cairo International Poetry Prize

Despite what some saw as a hard push to grant an Egyptian the prize, judges awarded Yemeni, Al-Maqaleh for his 5 decades of influence on modern Arab poetry

Yemeni poet, Abdulaziz Al-Maqaleh, was named the winner of the Cairo International Poetry Encounter on Thursday night. The announcement was made at the Encounter's closing ceremony in the Cairo Opera House small hall.
The news was leaked to the press one day before the official declaration, however. Official sources at the Supreme Council for Culture, the organiser of the encounter and its founder Poet Ahmed Abdel Moa'ti Hegazy refused then to comment.
Rumour had it that Hegazy and Said Tawfik, the head of the SCC, were championing to grant the prize to renowned Egyptian poet Hassan Teleb during the closed-door deliberations.
The judges' panel included one Jordanian poet, Mohamed Shahin; three Egyptians poets Ahmed Abdel Moa'ti Hegaze, Hassan Teleb, Mohammed Soliman and two Egyptian critics Hussein Hammouda and Abdel Moenm Tellima.
Al-Maqaleh was not present at the ceremony to receive his LE100,000 prize ($15,000 approx.), but Yemeni poet, Hamadan Zeid received it on his behalf.
The panel said that Al-Maqaleh was granted the prize for objective and artistic reasons, as he is one of the rare academic intellectuals who enriched Arab poetry with his works over five decades, making him one of the most important modern poets.
The first winner of the Cairo International Poetry Encounter was the famous late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. The following year the award was given to poet Ahmed Abdel Moa'ti Hegazy, who was vehemently criticised because he was the head of the Encounter. Some news reports called the decision a "scandal" saying that Hegazy granted the prize to himself.
The Encounter's organisers sparked controversy two days before its opening when they declared that they would change some of the rules, including the rule that the prize alternates between an Egyptian poet and an Arab poet year by year.
Young Egyptian poets saw this as a move to grant the prize to an Egyptian this year, because last year Hegazy (an Egyptian) won the prize and, accordingly, the old rules would have prohibited another Egyptian from qualifying for it this year.
This year the awards theme is 'Spring of Poetry...Spring of the Revolution' and celebrated the famous poet group, Apollo, which dominated the poetry scene in Egypt in the early decades of the 20th century.
Al-Maqaleh, Yemeni poet and critic, born in 1937, worked as a professor of Arab Literature at Sanaa University and is a board of trustees member of the Arab United Research Organisation in Beirut. He has more than 15 poetry collections and other 15 literature books and critiques.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/67476.aspx