New Words to Old Tunes: Genres and Metrics of Lebanese Zajal Poetry presents a novel framework for the proper scansion of meters and emphasizes the previously overlooked roles of musical and poetic stress. It details over 20 zajal genres, including popular songs that use zajal metrics, and integrates musical notations and web-streamed audio links to enrich the reader's experience.

Haydar is to host the launch of his most recent research work at 2 p.m. Friday, April 4, in the WLLC Digital Humanities Studio (JBHT 207). During this event, Haydar will share his work, read from his book, and even sing a few lines of Lebanese zajal. Light refreshments will be served.

Haydar has authored, co-authored and co-edited eight books, including Naguib Mahfouz: From Regional Fame to Global Recognition, and published numerous translations and interpretations of poetry and fiction, including Adonis' Mihyar of Damascus, His Songs, Khalil Hawi's Naked in Exile and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's celebrated novels The Ship and In Search of Walid Masoud. He has edited numerous modern Arabic novels in translation for Syracuse University Press. His many articles on modern literary theory and oral poetry have appeared in premier literary journals in the U.S. and in the Middle East. His translation (with Michael Beard) of Adonis' Mihyar of Damascus, His Songs, published by BOA Editions, was awarded the Modern Language Association's prestigious Lois Roth Award for the Translation of a Literary Work.