"But I did not know that between the East and the West
there is a veil
and a rosary of sins" 

                   (Fragment from the poem Red of the Sun´s Pants)

He was born in Casablanca in 1953. He holds a degree in Sociology, and is a member of the Moroccan Writers´ Union. In 1978, he was arrested and condemned to two years of prison for the attack against sacred values, and his poems were destroyed. Since he was freed, he has been devoted to writing.

He writes poems and novels. Of his poetic works, the following titles stand out: Dance of the Head and the Rose (1977), Laughter from the Tree of Words (1982), The Triangle´s Apple (1998), Black Butterflies (1998) and Steps of Metaphysics (2000). He has written the novels The Woman with the Two Horses and Graveyard of Happiness.

Zrika has a very peculiar poetic experience. His poetry is very modern, bold, and impetuous. He is not interested in making distinctions between literary genres, and for him, reality is an eventuality among others.

Sources:

• The book Voces del Sur: poesía marroquí contemporánea (Voices from the South: Contemporary Moroccan Poetry), 2006

• The book La poesía marroquí: de la independencia a nuestros días (Moroccan Poetry: from Independence to Present Day), by Abdellatif Laâbi

Additional information:

• Biographical data on the Centre for Creative Arts website