May Muzaffar

May Muzaffar was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1940.^[1][2][3] She attended the University of Baghdad, where she studied English literature.^[4]

Muzaffar is known for her work as a writer of poetry and short stories, as well as literary criticism.^[5][6] She has produced five story collections, including Al Baja (1973).^[2][5][6] In addition, she has published five poetry collections, including Layliyyat ("Nocturnes," 1994), Barid al-Sharq ("Mail from the Orient," 2003), and Ghiyab ("Absence," 2014).^[4][5][6]

She has also written nonfiction, including a biography of the writer Nasir al-Din al-Asad.^[6] In 2021, she published a memoir that shared her love story with her late husband and mourned the Iraq of her youth; it was released in English translation in 2023 as Story of Water and Fire.^[7][8] Other work published in English translation includes a contribution to the 2000 collection The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology.^[5][6][9]

She has also worked as a translator and editor. Her translations into Arabic include poetry from Ted Hughes and Etel Adnan, and she has served as a contributing editor to the Bahraini literary journal Thaqafat.^[5][6]

Her writing from the 1970s to 1990 is seen as an important example of Iraqi women writers prevailing despite state censorship and discrimination.^[10] In 1991, she left Iraq for Amman, Jordan, where she continues to reside and work, as part of a wave of Iraqi writers and artists who emigrated in this period.^[6][11][12]

May Muzaffar was married to the late Iraqi artist Rafa al-Nasiri, whom she first met in 1971.^[6][7] The couple often collaborated, including on the poetry collection/art book From That Distant Land in 2007.^[13][14] Since his death in 2013,^[15] she has worked to preserve and promote his work and legacy.^[4]