Making the world habitable

Abstract

Mediterranean: Prospect and Retrospect opens up a space of encounter with leading scholars, writers and academic practitioners in and of the Mediterranean. These are purposely solicited, intimately captured features intended to generate intuitive reflection on the state of Mediterranean Studies, the many and diverse approaches to it and its understandings, past and present. In this second session of Mediterranean: Prospect and Retrospect, Norbert Bugeja speaks to Moëz Majed, a poet, cultural editor, and one of the most important Arab poets now writing. Moëz Majed was born in Tunisia in 1973, to a family of poets and diplomats. His father was a prominent classic poet of the early postcolonial period. Majed studied life sciences at university in Tunisia and at the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. He was director of the Arab-language literary magazine Reehab Al-Maarifa between 2009 and 2011, and of the French-language magazine Opinions between 2011 and 2013. Majed writes his poetry in both French and Arabic. He has been published in Tunisia, France, Jordan and Mexico, and his poetry is translated and published in many languages. Moëz Majed is also the Founder and Director of the acclaimed International Poetry Festival of Sidi Bou Saïd (Tunisia). He has hitherto published eight volumes of poetry: L’ombre … la lumière (Arabesques, Tunis 1997), Les rêveries d’un cerisier en fleurs (Contraste édition, Sousse 2008), L’ambition d’un verger (L’Harmattan, Paris 2010), Gisants (Fata Morgana, Saint Clément 2012), Chants de l’autre rive (Fata Morgana, Saint Clément 2014), Non loin de là (Arabic translation) (Al Ahlia, Amman 2019), Libellule (Al Dante- Les Presses du Réel, Dijon 2022), Cities of Water (Arabic) (Arabesques, Tunis 2024) and Luz de verano sobre los parpados (Spanish translation by Stéphane Chaumet), published by Vaso Roto, Monterrey, Mexico in 2024. [excerpt]