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Inclined
to Speak
An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry
Edited by Hayan Charara
The
most important Arab American poets of our time
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.
“Hayan Charara's
rich anthology of Arab-American poetry in this moment couldn't
be more timely; this book opens eyes, opens worlds.”
—Mark Doty, author of Fire to Fire: New and Selected
Poems
"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
“Inclined
to Speak, especially in this Time, Place & Condition,
when most of The Free World's Foreign Policy consists of Lies,
Slander & Invasion is like Wolfbane when you hear the
werewolf howling. It opens the door to a world breathing like
our own, but adding dimensions that deepen our understanding
of where we are and what time it is, that are immense, dreadful
and wonderful.”
—Amiri Baraka, author of Somebody Blew up America
and Other Poems
“These poems
are a kaleidoscope of stories, visions, memories that offer
a kind of transcendence we so desperately need right now.
This is a marvelous collection that gives readers room to
breathe, to fly, to wonder and to cry.”
—Persis M.Karim, editor and contributing poet, Let
Me Tell You Where I’ve Been
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.
March
6 x 9, 328 pages
$24.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-867-7 | 1-55728-867-4
$59.95 (s) cloth
ISBN 978-1-55728-866-0 | 1-55728-866-6
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