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Before Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., enjoyed international fame as one of the world’s foremost experts on the Libyan genocide, Ahmida was a poet.

For the past quarter century, the 91ֱ����Ƶ political science professor has investigated the history of the Fascist Italian genocide in eastern Libya, a vast body of research that resulted in five books on the subject, including Ahmida’s most recent work, Genocide in Libya: Shar, a Hidden Colonial History. And on the subject of his scholarship, Ahmida is not done. The founder of UNE’s political science program is currently shortlisted for the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, an award he hopes to use to expand his research and investigate the insidious connection between the Libyan concentration camps and the Holocaust.

The atrocities that occurred in Africa and Europe in the 1930s are not typically the stuff of romantic poems. The period of Ahmida’s creative life when he wrote poetry came before he went to work in academia. Then, last summer, when Ahmida visited his homeland for the first time in 10 years, a friend in Benghazi gave him a stack of his published poems with one condition: Ahmida have the collection published. 

Last month, Ahmida’s book of poetry “Who Would Sing With Me This Melody of Hope?” was published in Arabic by a Libyan publishing house, a book that is on display the week of Feb. 3 at the annual Cairo International Book Fair, the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world. The collection includes poems about unrelinquished love as well as scenes of everyday life in Libya, such as Ahmida’s fun-loving grandfather, who loved to sing and smoke tobacco.

Ahmida credits the creative culture where he grew up for this accomplishment, which he calls small but significant. The Libya of his youth was a culture rich in art, music, and literature that he relished with friends who were authors, painters, and musicians.

“I was an avid reader living in an area of southern Libya surrounded by five libraries. I loved music, too. Both the cultural climate and the generation at that time encouraged literature and poetry,” Ahmida said.

At age 16, after a girl who left town broke his heart, Ahmida wrote his first poem, aptly titled: “My Love Left Town.” He sheepishly shared it with his grandmother, who suggested he send it to the local newspaper that had an entire section devoted to submitted poetry. Soon after, Ahmida enjoyed the thrill of seeing his first published work.

As a high school senior, Ahmida won awards for his poetry and short stories at the national high school literary competition in Benghazi, Libya. Then when he attended the University of Cairo in Egypt, the vibrant art scene there further fueled Ahmida’s creative writing. He continued to publish his poems.

“I was lucky to have mentors who encouraged me and told me, ‘You have something to say,’” Ahmida said.

But when Ahmida came to the United States to attend the University of Washington on a scholarship to study political science, his focus shifted to learning a new language and pursuing a doctorate degree. Poetry became a lost passion—until last year.

While in Libya last spring where he gave three talks on his research, Ahmida met with friends he hadn’t seen in 30 years, including Salim Alkubty, a historian and journalist. Alkubty gave Ahmida a packet of his old poems with one condition: Ahmida must publish the collection.

In January, Al-Rowad for Publishing and Distribution in Tripoli, Libya, one of the leading book publishers in the Middle East, published Ahmida’s poems.

“It was at a dinner with the Libyan writers of the ‘70s, which is what we were called. There were writers, painters, and novelists. It was very unexpected,” Ahmida said. “Salim Alkubty made me promise I would have it published. So that’s what I did.”

At the end of the month, Ahmida will return to Libya to give a talk at the University of Sabha on reforming higher education in Libya—and to sign his book of poems for readers in Sabha and Tripoli, Libya.