POET AND TRANSLATOR KHALED MATTAWA TO READ AT U OF A

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Khaled Mattawa, who has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Wallace Stegner Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts translations fellowship, and the Alfred Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, will read from his work at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 27 in Giffels Auditorium.

Khaled Mattawa was born in Benghazi, Libya, where he had his primary education. In 1979 he emigrated to the United States. He lived in the South for many years, finishing high school in Louisiana and completing bachelors degrees in political science and economics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He went on to earn an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University, where he taught creative writing and won an Academy of American Poets award.

Mattawa is the author of "Isma’ilia Eclipse" (Sheep Meadow Press, 1995); the translator of two volumes of Arabic poetry, Hatif Janabi's "Questions and their Retinue" (University of Arkansas Press, 1996), which received the University of Arkansas Press Award for Arabic Translation in Literature, and Fadhill Al-Azzai's "In Every Well a Joseph is Weeping" (Quarterly Review of Literature Series, 1997). He also co-edited "Post Gibran: Anthology of New Arab American Writing" (Syracuse University Press, 1999). His own poetry has appeared widely, in "The Kenyon Review," "Poetry," "New England Review," "Callaloo," "Best American Poetry," "Ploughshares," "The Pushcart Prize Anthology;" "Crazyhorse," and elsewhere. His work is also featured on Web del Sol.

Mattawa’s second book, "Zodiac of Echoes" is forthcoming this fall from Ausable Press, and his translation of "Fadhil al Azzawi Selected Poems" is forthcoming from BOA Editions. He is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin.

In addition to his reading, Mattawa will meet individually with current students studying translation at the University. Generously funded by the Walton Foundation, Mattawa’s reading is free and open to the public.