State of Emergency: No. 20 (Visible Poets) - Hardcover

Rooted in Algerian experience, "State of Emergency" speaks of urgent concerns everywhere - oppression, resistance, state violence, traumas and private dreams. Soleiman Adel Guemar's poetry sings of life's sensual pleasures in the face of the grotesque morbidity of violent political repression. In her introduction to this collection, Lisa Appignanesi writes: "Soleiman Adel Guemar is almost exactly as old as the independent Republic of Algeria. He has witnessed its terrible history, the crimes against humanity which attended its birth and the enduring 'state of emergency' under which life has been blighted ever since. This volume marks an important moment: a record from the inside of a history which is too palpably of our times".She also writes: "Where before we had only newspaper headlines, stereotypical Algerians, or the dry, if conscientious, reports of NGOs, we now have a living voice, both political and lyrical - an intensely individual voice which speaks out freely and traces the lineaments of a tragic history...His surly ironies have a fighter's edge, a tough beauty which ropes us in. Britain has inadvertently inherited a political poet of stature, one whose language sings whether he is attacking the face of grim authority or dreaming of that other asylum which is an imagined Algeria of peace. In the excellent translation by Tom Cheesman and John Goodby, Guemar's poems carry all their native force and brusque wit."

Soleiman Adel Gumar was born and raised in Algiers. He was heading for an army career when he quit his engineering studies to spend two years in Paris working in publishing. He returned to Algiers in 1991 amid signs of democratization, in order to work as a journalist, initially on 'L'Evenement' and then freelance. Besides reporting on corruption and human rights abuses, he also published numerous stories and won two national poetry prizes. A generous selection of his poems appeared in the Parisian journal 'Algerie Litterature / Action' in 2002. By the end of that year he had had to leave Algeria to seek safety for himself and his family in the UK. Tom Cheesman lectures in German at Swansea University. In 2003 he founded non-profit Hafan Books to publish writing by refugees and asylum seekers, alongside work by other writers in Wales (www.hafan.org). His poetry translations include Manfred Peter Hein's 'Between Winter and Winter' (University of Iceland, 2006). John Goodby lectures in English at Swansea University, specializing in Irish and Welsh writing in English. His poetry publications include 'A Birmingham Yank' (Arc, 1998) and an experimental translation of Heinrich Heine's 'Germany: A Winter's Tale' (Smokestack, 2005).Lisa Appignanesi is a novelist, writer, broadcaster and documentary producer. Her fictions include 'The Memory Man', which draws on her acclaimed family memoir 'Losing the Dead', and the best-selling psychological thrillers 'Sanctuary' and 'The Dead of Winter'. She co-authored 'Freud's Women' and co-edited 'The Rushdie File'. Formerly Deputy Director of London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, she has been Deputy President of English PEN since 2004 and ran the successful "Free Expression is No Offence" campaign against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill.