Poetry is one of the major forms of expression in both Africa and the Arab World, and this anthology gives a glimpse of the most representative voices of the French-speaking countries of these two regions. The past half-century has confirmed their work as poetry of great literary quality, full of a unique vitality and presence.

The Traveller's Tree presents poems from Algeria (Mohammed Dib, Habib Tengour)

Cameroon (Paul Dakeyo)

Chad (Nimrod)

Congo Brazzaville (Alain Mabanckou, Tchicaya U Tam Si)

Democratic Republic of Congo (Kama Kamanda)

Djibouti (A. Waberi)

Ivory Coast (Tanella Boni)

Lebanon (Venus Khoury-Ghata)

Mauritius (Edouard Maunick, Khal Torabully)

Morocco (Abdellatif Laâbi)

Senegal (Babacar Sall, Lamine Sall) and Tunisia (Tahar Bekri, Chems Nadir, A Said).

Patrick Williamson is an English poet, born in Madrid in 1960. His most recent poetry collection is Three Rivers / Trois Rivières (Harmattan, 2010). He has translated, among others, selected works by Tunisian poet Tahar Bekri and Québécois poet Gilles Cyr. He now lives near Paris.