EP5: Ghassan Zaqtan

In this episode we speak with poet Ghassan Zaqtan about his literary career and the people who supported him throughout, as well as the magazines he worked across periods and literary geographies.

Ghassan Zaqtan is a poet and writer born 1954 in Beit Jala, where his father poet Khalil Zaqtan had worked. They lived in the Karama Refugee Camp until 1967 before it was demolished and moved to Amman afterwards, where Zaqtan studied physical education. He followed the Palestinian Revolution to Beirut in 1979 and lived there until 1982, thereafter moving between Damascus and Tunis, until eventually returning to Ramallah after the Oslo Accords in 1993. He worked at al-Hurriya magazine in both Beirut and Damascus. Since the 1970s, Zaqtan published over 10 poetry collections and a few novels, including Describing the Past (1995).

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Produced by the PalREAD – Country of Words project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC)

Interviewer: Tala Halawa

Writer, Producer and Editor: Ibrahim Abdou

Host & Concept Design: Refqa Abu-Remaileh

Sound Recording: Arts Faculty Studios at Birzeit University

Sound Editing & Design: Ziad Fayed

VO Recording: Gianpiero Tari

Music: “The Astounding Eyes of Rita” by Anouar Brahem (ECM Records, 2009)

Cover Art: Alexandra Sophia Handal