Fady Joudah has translated three new works by the vibrant Palestinian poet, short-story writer, and children’s-book author Ahlam Bsharat.
Read moreLit & Found: Three Poems by Taghrid Abdelal
“I will look at your back / if you come down a little closer.”
Read moreLit & Found: A Poem by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
“Maya’s poems are made of such dailiness, the extreme violence of a colonizing force punctuating days filled with humor and compassion and small failures and sweeping loves.”
Read moreFriday Finds: ‘A Contemporary Novel’ by Maya Abu al-Hayat & Five More
“The female protagonist visits him in the mornings, / taps shyly on the window, sweeps the street with a glance. / (Did anyone see her?).”
Read moreTwo Laughter Poems & a Cover Reveal from Maya Abu al-Hayyat’s ‘You Can Be the Last Leaf’
“You will hear and taste her laughter and also yours. Because laughter is ‘the excess knowledge no one takes seriously,’ the cherished identity smuggled out of psychology and surveilled consciousness.”
Read moreLit & Found: Lyric Dispatches from Palestine
In case you have missed it, the special Baffler magazine section on poetry from Palestine, curated by Fady Joudah, continues to unspool.
Read moreFriday Finds: ‘Palestine Twenty Times in a Sentence’
The three translated poems are “We,” “Massacres,” and “I Don’t Ask Anymore.”
Read moreThe Flying Flesh of Amjad Nasser’s ‘Adam’s Kingdom’
“The ugliness of reality has surpassed the imagination of our ancient poets, and where modes of torture and killing machines have overshadowed the most creative minds of filmmakers, it is futile to invoke the ancient muses.”
Read moreOnline, Free: 5 by Ghassan Zaqtan, Including Novella ‘Describing the Past’
“To write a memory I gathered a memory / and to green the marshes I sprinkled friends/ over the salt marshes, and was at a loss/ with myself”
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