This poet, playwright and narrator was born in Oran (Algeria) in 1951. In 1968, he joined the renowned Théâtre de la Mer, also baptised as the Cultural Workers´ Action. He became famous in 1971 after the editor Jean Senac published some of his poems in his Antología de la poesía joven argelina de expresión francesa.

In 1978, he was recognised for the play titled Une si tendre enfance, and a year later he published an anthology of Algerian poetry in Spanish: País de larga pena.

He moved to Hamburg in 1997, invited by Hamburger Stiftung für politish Verfolgt, before receiving the assistance of the German PEN-club as part of its Writers in Exile programme. He offers speeches and conferences in Germany, and participates in literary manifestations all over the world each year. He was recently appointed executive director of the ALIFMA NGO, which was created in Hamburg to promote exchanges between North Africa and German-speaking nations.

He worked as a journalist for several organisations as of 1972 and then for the Algerian press agency before founding the Perspectives economic seminar in 1991. In 1992, he participated in the AJA (Algerian Journalists Association) foundation to face the institutional vacuum and defend freedom of expression.

His works include: Nouvelles de la maison du silence (1986), Citrouille felée, La princesa y el clown (novel, 1999), El testamento (theatre), Las escaleras del cielo (essays) and Pequeñas historias para hacer reír un caballo.

Sources:

Book Mercado de historias: relatos y poemas de África y el Caribe, 2003

Information at the Medellín Poetry Festival website

Additional information:

The poet´s participation in the Medellín Poetry Festival