Mohammed Bennis was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1948. He has taught in the Faculty of arts at the Mohammed V University in Rabat since 1980. Bennis's efforts are aimed at the modernization of Arab poetry. He ranks among the most important voices in Arab literature.

He interested in literature, and above all poetry, in his first years at college. His university study was in the Faculty of arts at Fes. Turning toward dialogue, he translates from French language texts into Arabic, and participated in Arabic and International poetry festivals. In addition to his literary work, Bennis has been active on a politico-cultural level. In 1974 he founded the magazine “Al Thaqâfa Al Jadida” (The new Culture), which played an active role in the cultural life of Morocco until it was closed dawn by the Moroccan government in 1984 after unrest in Casablanca. In 1985 together with university professors and writers, he established the publishing house “Dar Toubkal”. He was also the driving force behind the funding of The House of Poetry in Morocco in 1996 and became its president from 1996 to 2003. He addressed in 1999 a call to UNESCO for an International day of poetry. The UNESCO declared Mars 21 as International day of Poetry.

Since 1969 he published about 30 collections of verse and essays in Arabic. Many poems of him was translated and published in French, Spanish, English, Deutsche, Italian, Swedish, Catalonian, Portuguese, Japanese, Slovenian and Macedonian. Several of his collections of poems have already been translated into French, Spanish and Italian and Turkey.

Contents 1 Awards and distinctions 2 Publications in Arabic 3 Translation into French 4 Translation into Italian 5 Translation into Spanish 6 Translation into Turkish

[edit] Awards and distinctions

• 1993. The book prize in Morocco of creative writing, awarded for his collection The Gift of the void (poems).
• 2000. The Prize of Atlas for translation into French for his poem’s Collection River among the Mournful (poems).
• 2003. Chevalier des arts et des lettres, France.
• 2006. The Italian Prize of Calopezzati of Mediterranean Literature.
• 2006. An Honorary member of The International Association of Haiku in Tokyo.
• 2007. The Italian Ferronia Prize of International Literature.
• 2007. Al Oweis (Dubai) for his poetry works.

[edit] Publications in Arabic

• 1969, Anti-words (poems);
• 1972, On Oppression and joy (poems);
• 1974, Eternally Incandescent Face (poems);
• 1979, The Contemporary Moroccan Poetry (study);
• 1980, Toward your vertical Voice (poems); The Clean Wound of A. Khatibi (translation);
• 1985, The modernity of interrogation (essay);
• 1985, The Monsoons of the East (poems); 1988, The Leaf of Splendour (poems);
• 1989-1991, Modern Arabic Poetry (study);
• 1992, The Book of Love (poems);
• 1993, The Gift of the Void (poems);
• 1994, The Writing of Effacement (Texts on poetry and modernity); 1995, Rumour of air, collected poetry works of Bernard Noël (translation);
• 1996, The Pagan Place (poems);
• 1998, To cross to the Bleu Borders (Texts);
• 1999, Tomb of Ibn Arabi, Followed by 99 Stations of Yale, two collections of Abdelawahab Meddeb (translation);
• 2000, River Among the Mournful (poems);
• 2002, Poetry works; The Malady of Islam of Abdelwahab Meddeb (etude);
• 2003, Wine (poems); Inert Modernity (cultural journal);
• 2006, Right to poetry (essays);
• 2007, There you stay (poems);
• 2007, A Throw of Dace, poem of Stéphane Mallarmé (translation).

[edit] Translation into French

• 1995, Anti-journal of metaphor, on 33 colour-wash drawing by Colette Deblé, Jean-Michel Place éditeur, Saint-Denis ;
• 1999, The Gift of the Void (poems), l’Escampette, Bordeaux; Wine, (two series of poems) translation collective, Royaumont, France;
• 1999, Desert on the edge of the light (poem), Al Manar, Paris; Chant pour un jardin de l’eau (poem) translated by Abdellatif Laabi, Les petits classiques du grand pirate, Paris;
• 2003, River Among the Mournful (poems) l’Escampette, Bordeaux; 2008, The Book of love (poems) Al Manar, Paris.

[edit] Translation into Italian

• 2001, Il dono Del Vuoto, a cu di Fawzi Al Delmi, Edizioni San Marco de l Guistiani, Genova.

[edit] Translation into Spanish

• 2006, El Don Del Vacio (poemas) Frontispicio de Antonio Gamoneda, traducción de Luis Miguel Cañada, ediciones del oriente y del mediterráneo, Madrid.

[edit] Translation into Turkish

• Askin Kitab (poems), Türkçesi Metin Findikçi, Kirmizi Yayinlari, Istanbul, 2008.