HABIB TENGOUR

Exile, borders, and love


Habib Tengour reading at Dialogues, August 2024.
The English versions are read by editor and translator Rahul Soni.


Algerian poet and anthropologist Habib Tengour was born in 1947 in Mostaganem. He has more than fifteen works of poetry, prose, theatre, and essays to his name published by Algerian and French publishing houses and in poetry magazines.

His work has been translated into English, German, Arabic, Italian, Macedonian, and Dutch. He divides his time between Algeria and France. He translates poets from English, German and Arabic.

He won the Dante European Poetry Prize in 2016 for his entire poetic work.  In December 2023, the Laurentum Cultural Centre awarded him the "Dante Alighieri" Prize in Rome. He edits the ‘Poèmes du Monde’ series published by APIC (Algiers); the first edition of seven collections of poetry launched in 2018.

Recent publications:

  • Traverser, APIC, Algiers, 2016; übers Meer, German translation by Regina Keil and Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin 2017.

  • Le Tatar du Kremlin, PHI, Luxembourg, 2018. 

  • Odysséennes/Odissaiche (French-Italian bilingual edition, translated by Fabio Scotto) Puntoacapo, Turin, October 2019.  

  • Ta voix vit/Nous vivons, (with drawings by Hamid Tibouchi) Apic, Algiers, Octobre 2019. 

  • La Sandale d’Empédocle, Non-lieu, Paris, 2021.

  • États de chose et autres choses, APIC, Algiers, 2024

  • Autres Traces, Non-lieu, Paris, 2024