Mohammed Bennis was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1948, and taught in the Faculty of Arts at Mohammed V University in Rabat (1980–2016). He is the author of forty books, among them fourteen poetry collections, some of which have been translated into French, German, Italian and Turkish, among other languages. He has also translated works from French, including the first translation into Arabic of A Throw of the Dice by Stéphane Mallarmé (Ypsilon Éditeur, Paris, 2007). In 1974 he founded the review The New Culture, and in 1985, together with other university professors and writers, he established the publishing house Dar Toubkal. In 1999, he was instrumental in the establishment UNESCO’s World Poetry Day (21 March). Among awards he has received are El Primeo Feronia (Italy, 2007), the Al Owais Award (Dubai, 2008) and the Prix Max Jacob ‘Étranger’ (France, 2014). His most recent poetry collections are Seven Birds and This Blue.