Egypt's prominent poet Ahmed al-Shahawy will participate in the Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2015, scheduled for October 14, 15 and 16. As well as participating in round-table discussions on contemporary poetry, Shahawy will read new unpublished poems including I am Error of Linguists, I am Washed with Gold, Lonely I walk to Shade, Ahmad is Not His Name among others. Shahawy's readings will be at the Long Island-based historic site of U.S. Poet Walt Whitman, author of Leaves of Grass, as well as in the Cervantes Institution in New York. The poetry Shahawy is set to read during the festival has been translated into Spanish by Dr. Abeer Abdel Hafiz, professor of Spanish literature in Cairo University and into English by Dr. Bahaa-eddin M. Mazid, professor of Linguistics and Translation in Faculty of Arts, Sohag University. Shahawy, laureate of the UNESCO Literature Prize in 1995 and the Kavafy Poetry Prize in 1998, is the only Arab poet to participate in the festival. A total of 31 female poets and 26 male ones from Argentina, Brazil, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Spain, America, Bolivia, Dominican, Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Salvador, Venezuela, India and Ireland will participate in the festival directed by the ColombianAmerican poet Carlos Aguasaco. Since 1987, Shahawy, whose poems have been translated into numerous languages, has participated in several poetry festivals across the world, mostly in Spain, Canada, the U.S., Macedonia, IndiaTurkey, the Netherlands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemalan, Salvador, Ecuador and Argentina. The 55-year old poet has published 13 books: Two Prayers for Love (1998), Conversations I-II (1991, 1994), States of the Lover (1996), Book of Death (1997), Say That it is Her (2000), Water in the Fingers (2002), The Commandments on the Love of Women I-II (2003, 2006), Tongue of the Fire (2005), One Gateway but So Many Abodes (2009), I Drive Clouds (2010), A Heaven in my Name (2013). A Turkish edition of his last book was published by Kırmızı Yayınları Publishing House in 2014. Shahawy has always been resentful of repression in all forms and a staunch enemy of religious extremism. Some of his poems were strongly attacked by religious fanatics and Egypt's al-Azhar, the world's largest Sunni organization, accused him of blasphemy. In an interview with Al-Bawaba Egypt in Sept., he stressed he fears neither political nor religious authorities as "poetry knows no ceilings". Here is Shahawy's Program in the festival according to the poet himself: Opening- Apertura .................................... 1. Oct. 14 6 PM – 9 PM CWE Auditorium Center for Worker Education 25 Broadway, 7th Floor New York, NY 10004 2. Poetry Reading Oct. 15 11:00 AM TO 2:00 PM Walt Whitman ........................ Birthplace State, Historic Site and Interpretative Center 246 Old Walt Whitman Road Huntington Station, NY 11476 3. Closing Ceremony Oct 17. 7:00 - 8:30 PM ..................................... Multilingual Poetry Reading Instituto Cervantes New York at Amster Yard 211 East 49th Street 10017
