Hashem Shafiq was born in Iraq in 1950. He published his first collection of poems in Baghdad in 1973 and worked as a journalist. He left Iraq in 1978 for Paris, later living and working in Beirut, Damascus and Nicosia as a journalist until 1989 when he settled in London, where he lives now with his wife and two children. He has published eleven volumes of poetry to date. He has also edited a selection of Iraqi poetry (Aden, 1984), and published one novel (Beirut, 1992). Many of his poems have been translated into English, French, German, Italian and Polish and published in international anthologies.

Hashem was based at Wallsend and South Shields, to link with the Tigris Ferrymen/Iraq/Iran connection. He gave readings to Carville Junior School, Wallsend and Hadrian Primary School, South Shields, speaking in Arabic and English. He was also involved in the first poetry readings at Segedunum

Hadrian's Wall

A Small Bay