Yasmine Seale

The Poems of Al-Khansa

At the Institute I will work on my current book project: to translate – and write around – the poems of Al-Khansa, which were composed in the 7th century and form a monument within the art of elegy. In parallel I will continue my research into Arabic poetry more broadly, and into the possibilities of translation as a collaboration across time and space.

Yasmine Seale is a British-Syrian writer and translator. Her poetry, essays, visual art, and translations from Arabic and French have appeared widely. She is the author, with Robin Moger, of Agitated Air: Poems after Ibn Arabi (Tenement Press, 2022). Other work includes Aladdin: a New Translation (2018) and The Annotated Arabian Nights(2021), both out from W. W. Norton. She has received a PEN America Literary Grant and the Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry.