In an institution more accustomed to issuing security bulletins than literary tributes, a different kind of announcement made the rounds this weekend. Boubker Lmliti, a police officer serving with the public security prefecture of Mohammedia, has been awarded the Bland Al-Haidari Prize for Young Poets, one of the literary honors traditionally handed out on the sidelines of the Asilah Forum, a cultural gathering that has anchored Morocco’s summer cultural calendar for more than four decades.
Lmliti shares this year’s top prize with Iraqi poet Zine Eddine Al-Murshidi, in a pairing that organizers framed as proof that strong verse can emerge from the most unexpected professional backgrounds. The Moroccan officer is no newcomer to the craft: he has already published two collections of modern poetry, written, by all accounts, in the margins of a demanding and often unpredictable job.
Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security, known locally as the DGSN, moved quickly to claim a share of the spotlight. In a message of congratulations that circulated widely among staff, the directorate praised what it called the creative abilities of its personnel, insisting that wearing the uniform does not come at the expense of artistic sensitivity. Officials framed the award as validation of a broader internal policy pursued over recent years: encouraging academic, athletic and artistic excellence among police employees, and giving them room to showcase talents that have nothing to do with law enforcement.
Each year, the DGSN holds dedicated recognition ceremonies honoring the children of security personnel who excel academically, alongside officers who distinguish themselves in sport, the arts or literature. Lmliti’s prize fits neatly into that tradition, reinforcing an image the institution has worked to cultivate: that of a police force whose members carry rich inner lives well beyond their official duties.
The Asilah Forum itself remains one of the most closely watched fixtures on Morocco’s cultural circuit, mixing public debates, artist residencies and literary prize ceremonies in a small coastal town that transforms every year into an open-air cultural laboratory. That a serving police officer should be singled out there for his poetry says something about where artistic vocations in Morocco can take root, sometimes far from the country’s traditional literary salons.
Whether the recognition will push Lmliti toward a third collection remains to be seen. For now, colleagues describe a quietly proud officer, savoring an honor that has little to do with the career that pays his bills, and everything to do with the one he pursues after hours.
