Ouidad Benmoussa

(Morocco, 1969)

Biography

As a poet, Ouidad Benmoussa is currently on the executive board of the Union of Moroccan Writers. She is also a member of the House of Poetry in Morocco. She was vice president of the House of Contemporary Art in Asilah and also worked as counselor at the office of the Minister of Moroccan Culture. She was a journalist for 10 years for the widely read newspaper al Alam.

Ouidad Benmoussa has taken part in many cultural events and poetry festivals, such as the Casablanca International Poetry Festival, 2006; Poetry Readings in Granada University, Spain, 2007; the Arab House, Spain, 2007; the Cartagena Book Fair, Spain, 2008; and the Hay Festival, Segovia, Spain, 2008. Her poetry has been translated into French, Spanish, English, Turkish, and Dutch and has appeared in many international poetry anthologies.

Her poetry is characterized by a celebratory tone of femininity as the embodiment of love and joy in nature – and all life – hence, the spontaneity of her poetic language. Her poems can sometimes be read as incantantions to a higher self or spirit.

Only when the reader surveys her work in totality and delves deep into each of her poems does he or she sees the sorrow lurking at the bottom.

Bibliography

Poetry
li jidrun fil-hawa’ (I have a root in the air). Publications of the Ministry of Culture, Rabat, 2001
bayna ghamamatayn (Between two clouds). Dar Marsam, Rabat, 2003
fatahtuha alaik (I opened them on you). Illustrated with art photography by the poet. Dar Marsam, Rabat, 2006
zawba’at fi jasad (A storm in a body). Dar Marsam, Rabat, 2008
kidtu afrqidu najissiyyati (I almost lost my narcissism). Dar Ward, Syria, 2010
alhu bihaza l’umr (I toy with this life). Dar Toubkal, Casablanca, 2014

Links
Video of Benmoussa reading