Nouri Al-Jarrah is a Syrian-British poet. Born in Damascus in 1956, he has lived in exile since the early eighties, moving to London in 1986 and is known as one of the most influential contemporary poets of the Arabic-speaking world. He has founded several literary magazines and his poetry has been published in 16 collections, many of which have been awarded prizes in various parts of the Arab world.
His poems present cultural sources like mythology, folktales, and legends while reflecting on metaphysical considerations and deep, existential questions—most recently, the Syrian Civil War and the resulting refugee crisis. In 2008, he was awarded the State’s prize for children’s literature for “The Pillow Book” and In 2000, he co-founded The Centre for Arabic Geographical Literature in Abu Dhabi, which won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Publishing and Technology in 2019 for its contribution to the preservation, distribution, and recognition of travel literature.
