Award winning Egyptian poet Helmy Salem died on 28 July, 2012 after a long battle with lung cancer. He was 61.
Helmi Salem or Helmy Salem was born in 1951. He studied journalism in the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University. He was also awarded the State Excellence Prize in 2006 for his entire body of work.
He was recognized as one of the most prominent poets of the 1970s poetry movement in Egypt. He published around 18 poetry collections. His first collection was released in 1974, entitled Habibty Mazroua Fi Dima Al-Ard (My Beloved is Planted in the Soil's Blood). He worked for the Ahali newspaper and was editor in chief of the literary magazine Adab Wa Naqd.
He also wrote books on culture and literary criticism.
His work mixed modern and traditional genres, Marxism and Sufism. The poetry he left behind speaks of his love for and conflict with life, as if writing with the blood of life in a childlike language able to reach so many others.
Salem sparked considerable controversy on 2007 when he released a poem entitled Shourfat Laila Mourad (Laila Mourad's Balcony), which was taken by some as abusive towards the divine. Egyptian Islamist currents vehemently attacked him, saying that the state should strip him of the State Excellence Prize.
