Shihab Ghanem

Shihab Ghanem (born 1940) is a United Arab Emirates poet and was the first Arab to win The Tagore Peace Award in 2012 from the Asian Society in Calcutta, India, the Poetry Award for Culture & Humanism in 2013 from the World Poetry Society Intercontinental, Chennai, India; the Cultural Personality of the Year in 2013 from Al-Owais Creativity Award, Dubai, UAE; and an Honorary Doctorate in 2015 from Soka University in Japan His poems have been translated into twelve languages.

Shihab Muhammad Abduh Ghanem Al-Hashmi was born in Aden in 1940 and completed his secondary education at Aden College. He then obtained a double degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from Aberdeen University in Scotland in 1964. He obtained a master's degree in Water Resources Development from Roorkee University in India in 1975 and a Doctorate in industrial development from the economics department of Cardiff University in Wales in 1989. He became a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers of UK in 1990, and a Fellow of the Institute of Management of UK in 1990.

Ghanem worked as Deputy Permanent Secretary of Public Works and Communications in Aden, Chief Engineer of Eterno Supplies in Lebanon, Plant Manager of Gulf Eternit in Dubai. Between 1988 and 2003 he worked as Director of Engineering of Dubai Ports and Jebel Free Zone, and Managing Director of Mohammed Bin Rashid Technology Park. He was editor of Aden College magazine (1957–60), committee member of Al-Muntada UAE first literary magazine (1983–87), member of the advisory committee of Shuoon Adabiyah UAE writers magazine (2003–2005), member of advisory committee of Kalima translation project (2011–2015), advisor of Aden College website since it was established in 2009, advisor of Al-Mishkat literary magazine since 2012, and co-founder and advisor of the international poetry festival Poetic Heart since 2011.

Ghanem has published 62 books, including 24 volumes of translations of verse from Arabic to English or English to Arabic. His 16 poetry books include: Arabic: Complete Poetry works (2009), One Hundred and One Poems (2011), Al-Amwaj (2015). English: Shades of Love (1995), In the Valley of the Muses (2011). His 22 prose works include: Industrialization in the United Arab Emirates (in English, Avebury, U.K.,2002), Bayn Madinatain (Biography of his father in Arabic) (2008), 1500 English Proverbs with Arabic Equivalents (Express Printing, 2015), Al-Fatihah (in English co-authored with his son Dr Waddah Ghanem, Patridge, Singapore 2016)

Ghanem's paternal grandfather Abduh Ghanem (1889-56) was a legislative council member and president of the Arab Reform Club in Tawahi, Aden. His maternal grandfather advocate and novelist Mohammed Ali Lokman (1898–1966) was a renaissance figure in Aden and established the first Arabic and first English independent newspapers there. His father is Arab poet Muhammad Abduh Ghanem (1912–1994). He published 20 books.

Ghanem lives in Dubai, UAE and has three children.