In 1938, Bilbul released his first collection of short stories. Entitled
Al-Jamrah al-Ūla ("The first coal"), he described it as the only
belletristic book published in Iraq that year. Bilbul worked as a clerk in the
Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, whose president between 1938 and 1945 was another poet,
Meir Basri. He and Basri revived the
muwashshahat, strophic forms of poetry that were popular in
Andalusia. It is the only story known to have been subject to pre-publication editing in Iraq, where such a practice was wholly uncommon. After two Muslim brothers who worked at the printing press expressed being offended by the assigning of obviously Muslim names to the two primitive and cruel characters in the book, while the midwife was given a common Jewish name, Bilbul changed all the names to more neutral ones to please his friends. Reflective of his desire to present authentic accounts and to reach the masses, much of the dialogue in Bilbul's stories was written in
colloquial Arabic. Praised for his short-story technique, focus and unity, and social realism, he was also criticized for naivete, lack of originality, and weakness in characterization. He is nevertheless cited as one of the 21 most important novel and short story writers from the period between 1920 and 1955. ==References==