Hasan Atiya Al Nassar was born in Nassiriya, Iraq. He fled his native country for political reasons and moved to Italy in 1980. He lived in exile, in Bologna and then in Florence. Al Nassar wrote in Arabic and Italian, exploring themes such as geographical and existential exile, longing for a far-away motherland, and human fragility in the world. His poetry received several awards, including first prize in the Concorso di Poesia Città di Castelfiorentino in 1993 and the national poetry prize Maria Marino della città di Caltagirone in 2003. Al Nassar died near Florence in 2017.
