Sania Saleh

Saniya or Sania Saleh (Arabic: سنية صالح) was a Syrian writer and poet, who wrote and published several poetry collections.[1] Some of her poetry has been translated into English by Marilyn Hacker.[2]

Sania Saleh was born in the city of Masyaf, in the Hama Governorate, Syria. She met the Syrian writer Mohammad al-Maghut in the 50s at the house of the Syrian poet Adunis in Beirut. In the late 60s she married Mohammad al-Maghut while she was still a student in the college of literature at the University of Damascus, Syria.[1] They Had two girls together and named them Sham and Salafa.

In 1985, Sania Saleh died at a hospital in Paris after having battled an illness for 10 months.[3]

The Egyptian poet Iman Mersal has lamented that fact Saleh's poetry was not more widely known when Mersal was young:

I grew up thinking that there were no modern Arab female poets for me – until I read Sania Saleh, just three years ago or so. And this makes you wonder: why such poetry was not available to me as a young reader? I think if I′d read her early in my life, it would have been fantastic.[4]