Baghdad, February 1991

This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

"Distinguished Hebrew poet, Ronny Someck, was born in Baghdad in 1951; he came to Israel as a young child. He studied Hebrew literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and drawing at the Avni Academy of Art. Someck has worked with street gangs, and currently teaches literature, and leads creative writing workshops. Author of nine volumes of poetry and a book for children, written with his daughter, Shirly, has been translated into 39 languages. Selections of his poems have appeared in Arabic translations, in French, Catalan, Albanian, Italian, Macedonian, Yiddish, Croatian and English. Someck has been a recipient of the Prime Minister's Award, the Yehuda Amichai Award for Hebrew Poetry, the 'Wine Poem Award' in Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia, 2005, and the Hans Berghhuis prize for poetry 2006"--A blog posted by Nirala Publications (viewed July 20, 2015).