Description
At no other time in American history has our imagination been so engrossed with the Arab experience. An indispensable and historic volume, Inclined to Speak gathers together poems, from the most important contemporary Arab American poets, that shape and alter our understanding of this experience. These poems also challenge us to reconsider what it means to be American. Impressive in its scope, this book provides readers with an astonishing array of poetic sensibilities, touching on every aspect of the human condition. Whether about culture, politics, loss, art, or language itself, the poems here engage these themes with originality, dignity, and an unyielding need not only to speak, but also to be heard.Here are thirty-nine poets offering up 160 poems. Included in the anthology are Naomi Shihab Nye, Samuel Hazo, D. H. Melhem, Lawrence Joseph, Khaled Mattawa, Mohja Khaf, Matthew Shenoda, Kazim Ali, Nuar Alsadir, Fady Joudah, and Lisa Suhair Majaj. Charara has written a lengthy introduction about the state of Arab American poetry in the country today and short biographies of the poets and provided an extensive list of further readings.
About the Author
Hayan Charara was a visiting professor of poetry writing at the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. Before that he taught in New York City. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Sadness of Others and The Alchemist's Diary. Born in Detroit, Michigan, to immigrant parents, he currently lives in Texas. He is also a woodworker.
Reviews
Inclined to Speak is one of the most fruitfully diverse anthologies I have read in years, as its wealth of origins might lead one to expect. Here are poets in the high tradition of international Modernism, inheritors of Neruda, Hikmet, Celan, Ritsos and Darwish, who also deploy American poetry's plural possibilities, drawing from the same sources as Stevens, Oppen, Rukeyser, Brooks, Ginsberg, Rich. Some of these poets can think and sing in more than one language; they all can think beyond monoglot frontiers." - Marilyn Hacker, author of Essays on Departures: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2005
Book Information
ISBN 9781557288677
Author Hayan Charara
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint University of Arkansas Press
Publisher University of Arkansas Press
Weight(grams) 605g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 28mm
About the Author
Hayan Charara was a visiting professor of poetry writing at the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. Before that he taught in New York City. He is the author of two collections of poetry, The Sadness of Others and The Alchemist's Diary. Born in Detroit, Michigan, to immigrant parents, he currently lives in Texas. He is also a woodworker.
Reviews
Inclined to Speak is one of the most fruitfully diverse anthologies I have read in years, as its wealth of origins might lead one to expect. Here are poets in the high tradition of international Modernism, inheritors of Neruda, Hikmet, Celan, Ritsos and Darwish, who also deploy American poetry's plural possibilities, drawing from the same sources as Stevens, Oppen, Rukeyser, Brooks, Ginsberg, Rich. Some of these poets can think and sing in more than one language; they all can think beyond monoglot frontiers." - Marilyn Hacker, author of Essays on Departures: New and Selected Poems, 1980-2005
Book Information
ISBN 9781557288677
Author Hayan Charara
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint University of Arkansas Press
Publisher University of Arkansas Press
Weight(grams) 605g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 28mm
