Al-Sou’d Ela Al-Manzel (Going up to the house) by Abdel-Monim Ramadan, Cairo: General Book Orgnization, 2011. pp.262
The “Reading for All” project, led by the General Egyptian Book Organization has just published a new poetry collection of works by the famous Egyptian poet Abdel-Monim Ramdan, titled Going Up to the House. The book, which combines both poetry and articles, is subtitled “Look, Stranger,” and includes photographs for some public figures, artists and writers.
In reference to the title, Ramdan says that, “Going up to the house means that the reader is my friend. I invited him to my house, and at home, I present to him the dearest of what I have: poetry. He may not like it, so I present to him articles. It may still not be liked, so I share with him photographs of people I love, and this is all I have. If he doesn’t like anything, I will say goodbye, and this way I establish a book as my friend, but its basis is poetry.”
Abdel-Monim Ramadan was born in 1951, and joined in establishing the literature group “Voices.” He was first published in 1974, and some of his important collections include “Dream is the shadow of time ... dream is the shadow of space,” published in 1980, “Dust” in 1994 and “Far from creatures” in 2000. He has won prizes including Lebanese Cultural Forum award in Paris 1998, and the Kafafis award in 2000.
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