Get in touch if you know where we should look.
Being a poet in UAE is a respected and sometimes quite lucrative profession - remember Nabati Poet Idol (http://poetandgeek.blogspot.it/2012/02/nabati-poet-idol.html). And poetry itself is also the subject of well-funded academic research in the Emirates.
p&g has a consistent fascination in Arabic poetic forms and how some drifted into western consciousness through the Islamic kingdom of Spain - of which we have spoken a little bit before here http://poetandgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/muwashshah-poetry.html. And indeed Madrid is our next destination.
Plus we note that publications of translated pre-20th century Arabic poetry in its pure forms seem to bring out the Rudyard Kipling in the translators - I guess it is the desire to emulate the elaborate structure - we are sure there is good work being done maybe into languages other than English? French or Spanish? Again we would love to hear about this.
And beyond that we are hoping to have a thoroughly good time obviously...
