In E-mails from Scheherazad (2003), Kahf introduces the legendary storyteller to the electronic trappings of contemporary life, yielding poignant and humorous cultural commentary. In this new collection of forthright and fearless poetry, Kahf gives voice to Hagar, an Egyptian slave who was made concubine to Abraham, the biblical patriarch, when his wife, Sarah, failed to conceive children. Hagar begat Ishmael, who would become the first patriarch of Islam, but not before mother and child were banished to the desert. Kahf propels Hagar into present-day debates in poems like “Hagar at the AIDS March” and “The Caseworker Visits Abraham and Sarah.” Powerful lyrics arrive in postcards and correspondence, drafts of letters written at the behest of Hagar’s therapist: “My page is torn in two like a parted sea / I somersault into the blank ripped space / between the things I used to believe, / and wake up not where I thought I was.” Kahf brilliantly transposes the disorienting experience of life in the U.S. for many immigrant and marginalized women with the rich history of the Abrahamic religions.
— Diego Báez, Booklist, September 2016