"Poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist, Abdellatif Laabi is one of the most prolific and critically acclaimed of contemporary North African writers. Born in Fez, Morocco in 1942, he founded the journal Souffles in 1966, which played a major role in sparking a literary and artistic renaissance throughout the Maghreb. Imprisoned from 1972 to 1980 for his political beliefs and his writings, he has lived in Paris since 1985. The World's Embrace consists of poems selected by Laabi from three books published in French over the past ten years: Le Soleil se meurt (The Sun Is Dying), L'Etreinte du monde (The World's Embrace), and Le Spleen de Casablanca (The Spleen of Casablanca)."--Jacket.