First poet to write Arabic poetry in free verse dead at 85

Iraqi poet Nazek al-Malaika died Wednesday, June 20, of old age at a hospital in Cairo, where she had lived in self-imposed exile since 1990. Al-Malaika was born in Baghdad in 1922 and wrote her first poem at age 10. She graduated from the College of Arts in Baghdad in 1944 and received a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin. Influenced by William Shakespeare and Percy Bysshe Shelley, al-Malaika published her first book of poetry entitled Night's Lover in 1947. Between 1949 and 1968, al-Malaika published three more volumes of her work. After 40 years of teaching Arabic and literature in Iraqi schools and universities, she left Iraq in 1970 after spending two years under Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime. Al-Malaika lived in Kuwait until Saddam's 1990 invasion drove her to Cairo, Egypt. A group of Iraqi intellectuals recently wrote the government, protesting the negligence of "Iraq's greatest surviving symbol of literature." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has released a statement expressing his condolences to "the family of the late poet, the dear daughter of Iraq, and all Iraqi poets and intellectuals." Al-Malaika was 85.

Sources: gulfnews.com, Associated Press, jehat.com