Hamda (or Hamdah) Khamis is a poet and a freelance columnist from
Bahrain
Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...
.
Biography
Khamis was born in Bahrain in 1945.
In 1969, she published her first collection "Shayaza" (translates into 'Shrapnel' in English), thus becoming the first woman to emerge into the Bahraini poetry scene. Many other Bahraini female poets followed after her, and helped create Bahrain's thriving literary scene.
In 2013, Hamda Khamis was invited to the 23rd Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, where she helped display the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
region's literary achievements with her poetry.
Works
She has published nine collections of poetry. Some of her collections are listed below:
*''An Apology to Childhood'' (''Iʻtidhār Lil-Ṭufūlah'', al-Baḥrayn: Dār al-Ghad, 1978)
* ''Shrapnel'' (Shayaza)
*''The Bliss of Love''
Her poems have also been translated into English, German, Spanish, and French.
A few of her poems were included in a poetry anthology titled, ''Gathering the Tide'': An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry.
*''Couple''
*''Ray''
*''Those Not For Me''
*''Without Reason''
Several of the poems included in ''Gathering the Tide'' are from her collection ''The Bliss of Love''. Other poems in the anthology, such as ''Ray'' explore why Khamis chooses to write poetry. A common theme in Khamis's poetry is a desire to escape the dissatisfaction and frustration with the domestic and worldly life, and move towards the abstract and cosmos.
The
Qasim Haddad Qasim, Qasem or Casim may refer to:
* Qasim (name), a given name of Arabic origin and the name of several people
* Port Qasim, port in Karachi, Pakistan
* ''Kasım'' and ''Casim'', respectively the Ottoman Turkish and Romanian names for General To ...
as some of the most well recognized contemporary Bahraini poets. The Encyclopedia notes that in Bahrain, "Younger poets uch as Khamis and Haddadhave developed a more Westernized style, writing non-rhyming poems on personal and political subjects.".