Paul Celan, born Paul Antschel, was a Romanian-born French poet, Holocaust survivor, and literary translator. Due to his many radical poetic and linguistic innovations, Celan regarded as one of the most important figures in German-language literature of the post-World War II era and a poet whose verse has an immortal place in the literary pantheon. His poetry is characterized by a complicated and cryptic style that deviates from poetic conventions.
Kateb Yacine was an Algerian writer notable for his novels and plays, both in French and Algerian Arabic, and his advocacy of the Berber cause.
Jean Epstein was a French filmmaker, film theorist, literary critic, and novelist. Although he is remembered today primarily for his adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, he directed three dozen films and was an influential critic of literature and film from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. He is often associated with French Impressionist Cinema and the concept of photogénie.
Pierre Joris is a Luxembourger-American poet, essayist, translator, and anthologist. He has moved between Europe, North Africa, and the United States for fifty-five years, publishing over eighty books of poetry, essays, translations and anthologies — most recently Interglacial Narrows and Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello, both from Contra Mundum Press. In 2020 his two final Paul Celan translations came out: Microliths They Are, Little Stones and The Collected Earlier Poetry (FSG). In 2019 Spuyten Duyvil Press published Arabia Deserta. Other recent books include: A City Full of Voices: Essays on the Work of Robert Kelly ; Adonis and Pierre Joris, Conversations in the Pyrenees ; Stations d'al-Hallaj ; The Book of U. His translation of Egyptian poet Safaa Fathy's Revolution Goes Through Walls came out in 2018 from SplitLevel. In June 2016 the Théatre National du Luxembourg produced his play The Agony of I.B.. Earlier publications include: An American Suite ; Barzakh: Poems 2000-2012 ; Breathturn into Timestead: The Collected Later Poetry of Paul Celan ; A Voice full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly and The University of California Book of North African Literature.
Si Mohand ou-Mhand n At Hmadouch, also known as Si Mhand, was a widely known Berber poet from Kabylie in Algeria. Called the "Kabyle Verlaine" by French scholars, his works were translated by fellow Algerians Mouloud Feraoun, Mouloud Mammeri and Boulifa and one of the translations was Les poémes de Si-Mohand (1960). Due to difference of information and sources, some details of his life are not clearly known.
The Darqawiyya or Darqawi Sufi order is a revivalist branch of the Shadhiliyah brotherhood which originated in Morocco. The Darqawa comprised the followers of Sheikh Muhammad al-Arabi al-Darqawi (1760–1823) of Morocco. The movement, which became one of the leading Sufi orders (tariqa) in Morocco, exalted poverty and asceticism. It gained widespread support among the rural populations and the urban lower classes. Its popularity was increased by its use of musical instruments in its rituals. In both Morocco and [ Algeria, the Darqawiyya were involved in political activities and protest movements.
André du Bouchet was a French poet.
Philippe Jaccottet was a Swiss Francophone poet and translator.
Jean Paulhan was a French writer, literary critic and publisher, director of the literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF) from 1925 to 1940 and from 1946 to 1968. He was a member of the Académie française. He was born in Nîmes (Gard) and died in Paris.
Titinga Frédéric Pacéré is a Burkinabé solicitor, writer, poet and griot and founder and curator of the Musée de Manega museum in Burkina Faso. He studied in Abidjan. He has written over twenty books and published 60 volumes and has been awarded the medal of honour of the Association of French speaking writers (A.D.E.L.F.).
Abu Muhammad Salih b. Abi Sharif ar-Rundi or Abu-l-Tayyib/ Abu-l-Baqa Salih b. Sharif al-Rundi was a poet, writer, and literary critic from al-Andalus who wrote in Arabic. His fame is based on his nuniyya entitled "رثاء الأندلس" Rithaa' ul-Andalus, a poem mourning the Catholic invasion and conquest of al-Andalus.
Pierre Seghers was a French poet and editor. During the Second World War he took part in the French Resistance movement.
Noël Mathieu better known under his pseudonym Pierre Emmanuel, was a French poet of Christian inspiration.
Alain Bosquet, born Anatoliy Bisk, was a French poet.
Nicole Peyrafitte is a Pyrenean-born multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work in painting, action painting, writing, film, video, music, and cooking draws upon her eclectic history and the experiences of shaping identity across two continents and four languages. Her performances often include food cooked live and served to the audience as sustenance, from whipping cream, crepes and soups, to full dinners.
The ardin is a type of harp played in Mauritania. It has a resonating body made of calabash, with 10 to 16 strings, and is played by female griots.
Colette Anna Grégoire was an Algerian poet of French origin. She married an Algerian, considered herself Algerian, and was involved in the struggle for Algeria's independence from France. Her work shows her love of the Aurès Mountains where she grew up, and her strong political beliefs.
Abdelmalek Sayad, was a sociologist, first as an assistant to Pierre Bourdieu, then as a research director at the French CNRS and at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. He studied migration issues in French social sciences.
Ahmed Ben Triki, sometimes referred to as Ben Zengli, (1650–1750) was a poet from Tlemcen, in Ottoman Algeria.
Muhammad Bin Al-Qāsim al-Qundūsi was an Algerian Sufi calligrapher and scholar who was born in Qanaadasa in southwest Algeria.
