Well-known in the Arab world as a poet, essayist and translator, Abdulkareem Kasid – born in Basra in 1946 – escaped from Iraq in 1978 and went to live in Aden. He later lived and worked in Damascus for ten years before settling in London with his wife and two children. In recent years he has returned to Iraq from time to time as well as travelling widely in North Africa and the Middle East. His translations from French into Arabic include poetry by Rimbaud, Jacques Prévert’s Paroles , and Anabase by Saint-John Perse. In 2006 he worked on A Soldier’s Tale , Stravinsky’s opera transposed to an Iraqi setting and performed at London’s Old Vic Theatre in 2006. Translations of his work have appeared in a variety of print and online journals in the UK.

A resolute secularist his work has been described as being characterised by “a blend of modernism, Sufism and references to Islamic and Arab history.” The work collected in Sarabad , the first extensive collection of his poetry published in English, offers a powerful, moving and sometimes sardonic commentary on Iraq’s recent history and the experience of exile.