Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures Ala’ Hlehel Vilenica and Medellín

Vilenica and Medellín

In her debut full-length collection of poems

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Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures Ala’ Hlehel Vilenica and MedellínThis open work was written in defiance of the sanctity of genre and to raise the question of freedom of expression in writing. First published in Arabic in 1969 to great acclaim, it has been variously called a novel or a prose poem, while the author calls it an epic in prose, divided as it is into cantos. In mid 1960s Iraq such an open ended form, in which different genres could come together and blend into each other, was difficult to even imagine.