Amman, September 8 – The Cultural Forum at Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation hosted a ceremony on Monday evening honoring the Palestinian poets who received the Argana International Poetry Prize 2026, awarded by the House of Poetry in Morocco. The event was attended by a notable gathering of writers, poets, intellectuals, and cultural figures.
The award paid tribute to Palestinian poetry, a literary tradition known for its diversity of voices, rich experiences, and evolving aesthetic visions. This year's prize was awarded to four leading Palestinian poets: Ghassan Zaqtan, Youssef Abdel Aziz, Taher Riyad, and Zuhair Abu Shaib.
The event, moderated by poet and academic Dr. Wafaa Jaabour, featured poetry readings by Taher Riyad, Youssef Abdel Aziz, and Zuhair Abu Shaib. Ghassan Zaqtan was unable to attend due to unavoidable circumstances.
While each honored poet brings a unique voice and artistic style, their work is linked by a common exploration of homeland, memory, and exile. Through poetry, they reimagine lived experience and extend the Palestinian narrative into broader human reflections on identity, belonging, loss, and meaning. Their varied use of place, imagery, rhythm, and language underscores poetry's enduring ability to cross borders and connect human experience.
Bringing these four poets together under the banner of the Argana Prize extends beyond recognizing individual achievement. It celebrates a wider Palestinian poetic tradition that, over decades, has developed a nuanced relationship with homeland, memory, and national experience without reducing poetry to direct political discourse. In these works, Palestine emerges not merely as a subject but as a fundamental element of the poet’s worldview, present in depictions of home, childhood, exile, loss, love, and mortality.
This diversity has played a significant role in broadening perceptions of Palestinian poetry beyond conventional representations centered solely on resistance and political struggle. Successive generations of Palestinian poets have integrated the national experience into universal human themes, creating poetry that speaks to a global audience while remaining deeply rooted in personal and collective memory.
Taher Riyad
Taher Riyad has devoted extensive study to Arab cultural heritage while cultivating a deep engagement with world cultures and literatures through his mastery of English. In 1981, he established Manarat Publishing House in Amman, which specialized in translating world literature and culture into Arabic. He managed the publishing house until its closure in 1991 due to financial challenges.
Riyad has a longstanding interest in Islamic and humanistic Sufi traditions and has translated works by numerous international poets and writers. For over 25 years, he authored cultural columns in Jordanian and Arab newspapers and participated in many local, regional, and international poetry festivals.
Selections of his poetry have been translated into French, English, German, Spanish, and Turkish. In 2017, he received the Jordan State Appreciation & Encouragement Award for his lifetime literary achievements. He has published ten poetry collections in addition to several translated works.
Youssef Abdel Aziz
Youssef Abdel Aziz holds a bachelor's degree in Arabic Literature from Beirut Arab University. A member of the Jordanian Writers Association, he has served on its administrative board for multiple terms.
He works as an editor for Al-Rozana, a Jordanian magazine dedicated to feminist thought and published by the Jordanian Women's Union. He is also a regular contributor to numerous Arab newspapers and magazines.
Abdel Aziz has published several poetry collections, and his works have been translated into English, French, German, and Italian. His accolades include the Jordan State Appreciation & Encouragement Award for Poetry (2017), Zahrat Al Madaen Award (2018) for his collection The Wolf of Forty, the Creative Sabbatical Award (2007), the Arar Award (1994) for his overall poetic contribution, and the Jordan State Appreciation & Encouragement Award (1990) for his collection Cloud Notebooks.
He has served as a jury member for several literary awards and has participated in poetry readings in numerous countries.
Zuhair Abu Shaib
Zuhair Abu Shaib holds a bachelor's degree in Arabic Language and Literature from Yarmouk University, Jordan (1983). He serves as Managing Editor of Awraq, published by the Jordanian Writers Association, and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Rozana, a magazine specializing in feminist thought and published by the Jordanian Women's Union.
He has published numerous literary works and received several prestigious awards, including the Mahmoud Darwish Award in 2012. In 2026, he was awarded the Argana World Poetry Prize by the House of Poetry in Morocco.
Ghassan Zaqtan
Born in 1954 in Beit Jala, Ghassan Zaqtan is widely regarded as one of the most influential Palestinian and Arab poetic voices of recent decades. His life in exile took him to several Arab capitals, including Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Tunis, and Ramallah.
Zaqtan has produced an extensive body of work in both poetry and prose. His poetry collections include Old Reasons, Flags, The Heroism of Things, Tempting the Mountain, Biography in Charcoal, and Going to Listen to My Father's Wonders. His prose works include Description of the Past, Where the Bird Disappeared, and An Old Car with Curtains. His collection “Speak, Thy Stranger” was published by Al Mutawassit in 2019.
His works have been translated into numerous languages, including English, French, and Italian. Among his international honors are the Griffin Poetry Prize (2013) and the Mahmoud Darwish Award (2016). He was also shortlisted twice for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2014 and 2016.