Poetry is one of the major forms of expression in both Africa and the Arab World, and this anthology gives a glimpse of the most representative voices of the French-speaking countries of these two regions. The past half-century has confirmed their work as poetry of great literary quality, full of a unique vitality and presence.

The Traveller's Tree presents poems from Algeria (Mohammed Dib, Habib Tengour); Cameroon (Paul Dakeyo); Chad (Nimrod); Congo Brazzaville (Alain Mabanckou, Tchicaya U Tam Si); Democratic Republic of Congo (Kama Kamanda); Djibouti (A. Waberi); Ivory Coast (Tanella Boni); Lebanon (Venus Khoury-Ghata); Mauritius (Edouard Maunick, Khal Torabully); Morocco (Abdellatif Laâbi); Senegal (Babacar Sall, Lamine Sall) and Tunisia (Tahar Bekri, Chems Nadir, A Said).

Patrick Williamson is an English poet, born in Madrid in 1960. His most recent poetry collection is Three Rivers / Trois Rivières (Harmattan, 2010). He has translated, among others, selected works by Tunisian poet Tahar Bekri and Québécois poet Gilles Cyr. He now lives near Paris.