The Asilah Forum Foundation on Wednesday announced the winners of the eighth edition of the Buland Al-Haidari Prize for Young Arab Poets.
The award was jointly given to two Arab poets, Iraqi Zain al-Abidin al-Murshidi and Moroccan Abu Bakr al-Militi, who stood out for their poetic output and creative experience, the Asilah Forum Foundation said.
The prize will be presented on 17 October as part of the 47th International Cultural Festival of Asilah, whose autumn session will run from 2 to 18 October.
“After reviewing the numerous submissions, comprising nearly 16 poetry collections by young poets from across the Arab world, and after lengthy discussions of their published collections and texts, the jury of the eighth edition of the Buland Al-Haidari Prize for Young Arab Poets unanimously decided to award the prize jointly to two Arab poets who stood out for their poetic output and creative experience,” the Asilah Forum Foundation said in a statement received by APAnews on Wednesday, 30 September.
The jury was chaired by Moroccan poet, writer and media personality Yassine Adnan and included poets, critics and academics from several Arab countries: Moncef Ouhaibi (Tunisia), Adel Dargham (Egypt), Fadel Sultani (Iraq), Violet Abou El-Jeld (Lebanon) and Abdullah Seddik (Morocco), as well as Hatim Betioui, Secretary-General of the Asilah Forum Foundation.
In its report, the jury said it had recognised in Iraqi poet Zain Al-Abidin Al-Murshidi, author of the collection Child of the Shepherds, a young poet with a strong command of his craft and a vibrant poetic style that skilfully blends different currents of Arabic poetry throughout its long history, thereby giving his work a remarkable freshness and originality.
The committee noted that “the traditional thematic approach to poetry is replaced by the mechanism of paradox, a mechanism that brings us closer to ourselves and leads us to reconsider the text and the world it creates”.
Regarding Moroccan poet Abu Bakr al-Militi, the jury’s report highlighted the “coherence of his project”, developed through his two collections, There Are Cafés in Your Eyes and A Loss in a Miniskirt and Knee-High Socks, as well as his ability to free himself from the influence of his predecessors “through a remarkable artistic attention to the details of his own universe”.
Since its creation in honour of the late Iraqi poet Buland Al-Haidari, a great admirer of Asilah and a regular participant in its Moussem, the prize has been awarded to around a dozen young Arab poets, including Kuwaiti Mohamed Hicham El Maghribi, Emirati Khouloud Mouala, Egyptians Ahmed Beghit and Ali Shalah, Tunisian Mohamed Arbi, Jordanian Abdalla Abdelrahman Abu Baker, and six Moroccans: Yassin Adnan, Ikram Abdi, Abdeslam Al Moussaoui, Abderrahim El Khessar, Soukaina Habiballah and Nassima Raoui, among others.
The Moroccan city of Asilah, in the north of the country, will host the autumn session of the 47th International Cultural Moussem from 2 to 18 October 2026. The major forum for intellectual exchange will feature geopolitical debates, exhibitions, poetry readings and artistic workshops.
Organised by the Asilah Forum Foundation under the High Patronage of King Mohammed VI, in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication and the Asilah Municipal Council, the event will bring together more than 400 prominent figures from the diplomatic corps, academia, literature and the arts. The event is being held under the theme “Asilah… A Land of Encounters and Dialogue”.
AK/Sf/lb/as/APA