Publications (Click on any book cover to learn more)
Books: (English)

2011 – Blindfold: (a collection of poetry), McGill Queen’s University Press, Montreal and Kingston, Canada 120 pp. Nominated for the Relit Annual Award and selected by the Association of American University Presses for 2012 annual Exhibit. Read more

 

1997 – Fields of My Blood: (a collection of poetry), Empyreal Press, Montreal, Canada 90 pp. Read more

 

1992 – One Fish From the Rooftop: (a collection of poetry), Cormorant Books, Maxville, Canada 84 pp. winner of the 1994 F.G. Bressani Literary Prize (Vancouver, B.C.) and the recipient of the Joseph S. Staufferd Award of the Canada Council for the Arts. Read more

 

1988, 1992 & 1993, 1995 –
When The Words Burn: (prose) A Study of Modern Arabic Poetry, 1945 – 1987, Cormorant Books, Maxville, Canada, 238 pp. Second ed., 1992.

•   Short-listed for the League of Poets Award (1990) and the John Glassco Award (1990)
•   Published for distribution in the Middle East by American Univ. in Cairo Press, Cairo, Egypt (1993), and by Inforium Press, Ankara, Turkey (1995). Read more

 

1981 – Land of Flowers and Guns: (a collection of poetry), introd. Louis Dudek, D.C. Books, Montreal, Canada 72 pp.

1976 – Nisan, A Book of Poetry: (a collection of poetry), Fiddlehead Books, Univ. of New Brunswick Press, Fredericton, Canada 64 pp. Read more

 

Anthologies and Translations

2012 – V6A: Writing From Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, (poetry and prose), Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver B.C. 150 pp. Finalist for the City of Vancouver Literary Award 2012. Read more

 

2011 – The Metamorphoses of Ishtar: by Nadine Ltaif, Guernica Editions, Toronto and Montreal, Canada trans from the French, 45 pp. Read more

 

2009 – Thursdays 2: Writings from the Carnegie Centre, (poetry and prose), Edited by: Elee Kraljii Gardiner and John Mikhail Asfour Otter Press, Vancouver, B.C. 48 pp.

1994 – Joy is Not My Profession: Selected Poems of Muhammad al-Maghut, (poetry), trans. and introd. Co-author A. Burch, Véhicule Press, Montreal, Canada, 64 pp.

1994 – Corridors: A Concordia Anthology (poetry & fiction), Assoc. Editor. Downtown Press, Montreal. Co-editors Alexis Diamond and Eric Williamson 115 pp.

1993 – in response to a commission from the BBC, Rupert Bawden wrote The Days of the Hawk, a setting of text by Ali Ahmad Said translated by John Asfour, for choir and orchestra, premiered by the BBC Singers and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Studios Maida Vale, in October 1993, with the composer conducting.

Books: (French)

2009 – Nisan: poésie, par John Asfour traduit par Nadine Ltaif, éditions Le Noroît, Montreal, Canada 103 pp.

In Press

2013 – to be published: Mirror of Absence by Faraj Bayrakdar, (poetry), trans from the Arabic Guernica Editions, Toronto and Montreal, Canada 54 pp.

2013 – to be published: The Surplus Man by Muhammad al-Maghut (poetry), Trans from the Arabic, 230 pp.

Books: (Arabic)

2002 – Hariq al-Kalimat: (When the Words Burn; trans. from English to Arabic). Trans. Mona Fadel. Amwaj Press, Beirut and Damascus, 258 pp.

2000 – Wurud wa-banadiq: (Flowers and Guns; trans. from English to Arabic). Author & trans. Co-translator Hatim Salman. Bisan Press, Beirut and Damascus 84 pp.

2000 – Samakah min ala al-sath: (One Fish from the Rooftop; trans. from English to Arabic). Author & trans. Co-translator Abd al-Hakim Ajhar. Bisan Press, Beirut and Damascus 92 pp.

Articles: (English)

1993 – Entry for “Muhammad al-Maghut” in the Encyclopedia of World Literature in the Twentieth Century, New York (The Continuum Publishing Company), Vol. V., pp. 402-03. Ed. Steven Serafin & Walter Glanze.

1989 – “Adonis and Muhammad al Maghut: Two Voices in a Burning Land,” Journal of Arabic Literature, Glasgow, Scotland, Vol. XX, pp. 10-30. (Refereed)

1989 – “Muhammad al Maghut and the Surplus Man,” Edebiyat, (Univ. of Penn.), New Series Vol. I, No. 2, pp. 23-40. Co-author A. Burch.