Prominent poet honored by Kurdistan culture ministry

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: Prominent Iraqi poet Lamei’a Abbas Umara was honored with the Culture Shield on Sunday in celebrations attended by cultural, literary and artistic figures in the Kurdistan culture ministry in central Arbil. “Umara has honored us in attending our celebration in a ministry that embraces a mosaic of intellectuals,” Kurdistan Culture Minister Kawa Mahmoud told IraqiNews.com news agency. On his part, Kurdish writer Kamal Ghambar, the representative of the Kurdistan Literati & Writers Association in Arbil, said in a speech on the occasion that poet Umara had expressed a “strong position resisting the former dictatorial regime in Iraq, and she deserves to be honored as a woman of literature”. Umara expressed gratitude for the Iraqi Kurdistan ministry of culture for the honoring ceremony, wishing that links of cultural cooperation would continue between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and expatriate Iraqis worldwide. Umara is a modern Iraqi poet. She was born in a Sabian Mandaean family in Baghdad’s Kureimat area in 1929. Among her anthologies are The Empty Angle in 1960, The Return of Spring in 1963, Ishtar Songs in 1969, They Call it Love in 1972, If the Lucky Reader Foresees my Future and The Last Dimension in 1988. SKH (S)/AmR 1