Jamal Jumá, born inBaghdad, is an Iraqi poet and writer. Since 1984, he has lived in Denmark. He has Bachelor of Arts in Arabic literature fromUniversity of Basrah and Cand.mag. in Semitic Philology from theUniversity of Copenhagen. He was an Arabic literature lecturer at the Center of Oriental Studies at theUniversity of Vilnius.
He has published several collections of poetry, including Book of the Book (1990),A Handshake in the Dark (1995), and Diary of the Sleepwalker (1998). His work has been translated to several languages.
He has also edited and published numerous manuscripts of Erotica, includingThe Perfumed Garden,A Promenade of the Hearts, and The Forbidden Texts. This infuriated some religious and political establishments around the Arab World, resulting in the confiscation and banning of these books in all Arab countries. Besides he has translated several works by Danish poets and authors into Arabic, among themJens Fink-Jensen,Bo Green Jensen,Johannes V. Jensen,Janus Kodal andNiels Lyngsø.
Jamal Jumá achieved his first and major cultural breakthrough internationally when famous British composerMichael Nyman set to music a good number of poems from his collectionA Handshake in the Dark. The choral work was commissioned by theBBC and premiered by theBBC Symphony Chorus andBBC Symphony Orchestra on 8 March 2007 at the Barbican Hall, London, with John Storgards as conductor.
