A Libyan writer, poet and professor.Born in 1964, he is also a prominent literary translator of Arabic poetry into English. Mattawa completed his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from the University of Tennessee then went on to earn an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from Indiana University where he taught creative writing. Mattawa is currently teaching in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at the University of Michigan. He has published poetry books, translations and 2 anthologies of Arab American Literature. Mattawa is the 2010 recipient of the Academy of American Poets Fellowship,he also received a Guggenheim fellowship, the PEN American Center Poetry Translation Prize, three Pushcart Prizes and other prizes. In 2014, Mattawa was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.