Vision of the Return is the first book by Algerian poet Amin Khan to be published in English. First published in 1989 as Vision du retour de Khadija à l’Opium, these poems, written in Algeria between 1980 and 1985, chart the prelude to a catastrophe. On the brink of civil war, Khan witnessed the free market—its preeminence and volatility—quickly destroying the social fabric that had been built through the struggle for Independence. As Khan relates in an interview for The Post-Apollo Press, “The sudden irruption of money as a universal value was henceforth a dominant… Behind the so-called liberal discourse, there was a will to keep the worst of the regime, namely repression, authoritarianism, bureaucracy. And, the combination of the two materialized with corruption. This was on my mind when I wrote these poems. It was also a time when I was young, full of optimism, energy, love, and I had believed that Algeria was going to react and that my compatriots wouldn’t be led like that, to slaughter. I wrote within that contradiction: in a moment where I was in the upward curve in my life, while in front of my eyes, the future was collapsing.”
Amin Khan was born in Algiers during the Algerian War of Independence in 1956. He grew up in a revolutionary family, writing poetry, and nurturing interests in philosophy and politics. He studied at the University of Algiers, the University of Oxford and the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris followed. As a diplomat and international civil servant, he held positions at the United Nations (New York), The World Bank (Washington, D.C.) and UNESCO in Paris, where he now lives with his family. His books include Les Mains de Fatma (Sned, 1982) and Archipel Cobalt (MLD, 2010), as well as Arabian blues (MLD, 2012, winner of the Prix de Poésie “François Coppée” de l’Académie française 2012 and Le Prix Méditerranée Nikos Gatsos 2012).
Dawn Michelle Baude is the author of seven volumes of poetry, including Egypt (The Post-Apollo Press, 2001), The Beirut Poems (Skanky Possum: 2001), Sunday (Signum Editions: Paris, 2002), and Finally: A Calendar (Mindmade, 2009). Her poems have appeared in a range of journals, including First Intensity, Bridge, and Verse, while her poetry criticism and essays have been featured in publications such as American Book Review, Vogue, and Newsweek International.