A critical study of Mahmoud Darwishs poetry throughout his career. Darwish (1941-2008), a Palestinian poet and author, was established as the national poet of Palestine and an important world literary figure. Mattawa brings together his detailed examination of Darwishs works and life to reveal the human side of one of the seminal figures in modern Arabic poetry.

In Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet’s Art and His Nation, Mattawa pays tribute to one of the most celebrated and well-read poets of our era. With detailed knowledge of Arabic verse and a firm grounding in Palestinian history, Mattawa explores the ways in which Darwish’s aesthetics have played a crucial role in shaping and maintaining Palestinian identity and culture through decades of warfare, attrition, exile, and land confiscation. Mattawa chronicles the evolution of his poetry, from a young poet igniting resistance in occupied land to his decades in exile where his work grew in ambition and scope. In doing so, Mattawa reveals Darwish’s verse to be both rooted to its place of longing and to transcend place, as it reaches for the universal and the human.