Shihab Ghanem became the First Arab to receive India’s Tagore Peace Prize

Emirati poet and translator Shihab Ghanem became the first Emirati and Arab to win the Tagore Peace Prize. The award is given to one person every two years. He said he was led to poetry by his father, brother and uncle, who have each published their own verses.  He had written 31 Arabic poems and 36 English poems and had published 45 books mainly in Arabic verse.

Tagore Peace Prize is instituted by the Indian government to commemorate the birth anniversary of India’s poet, philosopher and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Ghanem will officially receive the Tagore award in a ceremony to be held in Kolkata, India on May 6, 2013.

Awards and Honours won by Shihab  Ghanem:

• Rashid Award for Scientific Excellence in 1989

• 1st prize for poetry in the UAE in 1984

• Book prize from the Ruler of Sharjah for poetry translation in 2003 and 2007. 

Ghanem said “Work for your first life as if you will live forever, and for your hereafter as if you will die tomorrow,”