Poems

Hawo Mohamed Sheik

Water
Water is the basic need to all living things like plants and animals.
Without water no living thing can survive within 24 hours.
Without water everyone in the world would smell like a decayed animal.
Without water there would be no crop at all because the crops depend on water.
If there is no water in this planet no one could survive.

As I was a child
I used to be next to my mother.
When I was six years old I liked swimming but at that time there was no swimming pool.
In Somalia I could remember only a few things like big acacias, mango trees and other animals such as donkeys, monkeys, goats, cattle, camels, and sheep.

Peace in Somalia
Somalia should get peace in reconciliations.
Somali women should get freedom like other women in the world wide.

Happening Now

  • In addition to becoming the Berlin LitFest’s first curator-in-residence, Helon Habila has also just received Kaduna Books and Art Festival’s KabaFest Lifetime Achievement Award, celebrating his "exceptional writing and significant contributions to the development of literature globally."

  • Congratulations to Enah Johnscott, whose film Half Heaven won three awards at the Cameroon International Film Festival—best film, best director, and best cinematographer.

  • We regret the passing, on April 11, 2024, of the distinguished Romanian author and critic Dan Cristea, who served as the editor in chief of the Luceafărul de Dimineață cultural monthly. In addition to being an alum of the 1985 Fall Residency, Cristea received his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa.

  • Our congratulations to 1986 Fall Residency writer Kwame Dawes, who has been named the new poet laureate of Jamaica.

  • Congratulations to our colleagues Jennifer Croft and Aron Aji, who are among those serving as judges for the National Book Awards this year, in their case in the category of translated literature.

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