Blood Orange

by Yaffa As

"Blood Orange" is a highly emotional, important and timely poetry collection by Mx. Yaffa (They/She), a trans Muslim displaced Indigenous Palestinian. Their writings probe the yearning for home, belonging, mental health, queerness, transness, and other dimensions of marginalization while nurturing dreams of utopia against the background of ongoing displacement and genocide of indigenous Palestinians.

The collection came quickly and relentlessly, drawn from the depths of the author's soul during a movement for a free Palestine and aligned with a solar eclipse. It beckons readers to re-evaluate what is perceived as immutable and to imagine pathways toward Utopia.

"Blood Orange"- the title an homage to the Yaffa Oranges (which were appropriated first by the British and subsequently by Israel) refers to the author themselves, their homeland and blood spilled in the name of settler colonialism.

This highly charged and cathartic body of work confronts the anguish and loss inflicted by genocide but also embraces a vision of a world free of it. The poems within "Blood Orange" were a means of working through and processing the grief caused by recent events and serve as an act of protest and defiance against settler colonialism as a whole.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Transgender, Queer Lit, Adult

65 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[literarygay · Rating 5 out of 5]

“if joy is revolutionary how much ecstasy do i need to free Palestine?”

this was the first book i decided to read for 2024’s trans rights readathon, and after reading this i truly believe that it is a must read for everyone. as someone who rarely picks up poetry i was hesitant because i wasn’t sure if i would be able to understand this as i felt was needed, however this was as accessible as it was powerful and moving. this was a truly heart shattering read that will stay with me forever.
absolutely everyone needs to pick this up at some point. i highly, highly recommend reading this as soon as possible.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Blood Orange is a transformative experience. It is not a book to pick up lightly; it is one that demands time and openness. It is raw, brutal, and yet filled with a near-magical sense of hope, one that I think deserted the Global North a long time ago. For those of us like me, who are not white but live in majority societies, Blood Orange is also a sensory experience. It reminds me of the orange blossom cakes my Bedouin grandmother used to make when I was small and had a rough day at school. It returned memories to a broken brain. Blood Orange is an ode, not to survival, but to human existence and what transcends us. It is about Palestinian liberation, which is in itself about the liberation of every human: because there is a world in every human life. Each of us contains a parcel of that sunset in Haifa, with children laughing and playing on the beach, the sea providing, the air protecting, and the land tending. It is both sweet and sour, like an orange. The blood it sheds is red, like mine, like ours. The air we breathe is pungent with spices, aromas, from nearby markets and the castaway wind. Freedom is within us, and is for every single one of us.

[Vini · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful and absolutely devastating

[Eloise · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If joy is / revolutionary / how much ecstasy / do I need / to free Palestine?"

I talk about books here: Instagram / TikTok / Linktree

[Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sealey Challenge 2024 31/31 - Officially finished!

Well, what a way to end the Sealey Challenge! Blood Orange officially marks the end of my 2024 Sealey Challenge and I'm very thankful to have ended on such a high note. This collection is part reflection on the legacy of Palestinians intermixed with the continued hope of liberation from violent settler colonialism. I felt that this was a very emotive collection that reminds the reader of the need for humanity which is often lacking from the media. An important read that I think there is much to learn from and for a debut I must say - WOW!

[Ditte · Rating 5 out of 5]

we are the
final test
of a humanity
that continues to
fail

Poetry collection about the current Palestinean genocide from the lens of a trans, queer, Palestinean poet in the diaspora. Full of feelings of anger, frustration, helplessness, and refusal to give up. Easy to understand and well worth a read.

[The Lesbian Library (Maddy) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

I wish I could give this more stars. I implore everyone to read this, please. Beautifully, hauntingly written. Every single poem hits you in the heart. I am sick to my stomach with grief but it is such an important read. Do not go in lightly though as this poetry is raw and pulled from the depths of repeated genocide.

[Zana · Rating 4 out of 5]

if there's
no one
to count the
dead do they
not count?

3.5 stars.

Not really my favorite style of poetry, but goddamn, there were some amazing lines.

Some of my favorites from this collection are "Diaspora," "Lines and Circle," and "Whiteness Feeds."

From "Blood Orange":

i am of
a people who
have died a
thousand times
as white people
came and conquered
our blood filling
trees and canyons
turning the
sea a blood orange
like an eclipse that
forgot to
subside

From "Standing":

is it standing
when i have coted
for people who
killed my family?
is it standing
when i go to a single
protest while you
are carpet bombed
with phosphor?
is it standing
when i realized politics
is not made for
someone like me and
i am next?
is it standing
when i am a settler
my indigeneity murdered
thousands of miles away?

[Tabatha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very limited experience with poetry, so I decided to go very accessible book for my first foray. I think I might have gone too accessible though?

The writing style was the main issue for me, it felt very surface-level. On the one hand I understand the need for being direct with meaning (especially right now), but there were only a few of these poems I see myself wanting to reread. The vast majority were simple in a way where I feel like I got everything I could out of them the first time. I'm not going to go as far as to call Yaffa As an instapoet, but there are certainly similarities. Only in the writing style though, the content didn't remind me of instapoetry at all.

There were a lot of interesting ideas, I especially liked the poems centering on the guilt and helplessness the author feels for being so far away while their people are in the midst of a genocide. A couple passages within poems were very powerful, but there were probably equally as many where I was immediately taken out for one reason or another. They also all kind of blended together, but as this is my first poetry book, I'm not sure if it's typical for poems in a collection to feel so similar.

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author Yaffa As is a disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and indigenous Palestinian individual who has received awards for their transformative work around displacement, decolonization, equity, and centering the lived experiences of individuals most impacted by injustice. They are a storyteller.

The poems are special and unique and worth reading advocating for a free Palestine in a queer/ trans point of view but this poem says it:
Amal

  there will come

a day when

the sun sets on

a world and rises

in another

where indigenous

sovereignty

is honored

where queerness

no longer

exists

where transness

is no longer

an identity

where humanity

means something

genuine

The book was published by Meraj Publishing, a Trans and Queer Muslim publishing house bringing voices from the global majority. I feel privileged to be able to read a book like this because we rarely hear from a voice like this. The majority has been silenced so it is important to give this poet some space.

[akacya ❦]

2026 reads: 66/300

in this poetry collection, mx. yaffa, a trans, displaced palestinian muslim, explores themes of home, belonging, queerness, religion, and more. from the very first poem, i was hooked. it’s been a while since a poetry collection made me feel so deeply. i highly recommend blood orange, and i will be reading more of mx. yaffa’s work in the future.

read for the diverse baseline february prompt 1: about immigrant narratives by a racialized author

[Ceallaigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

“it is neither / the sun nor the moon / moving / that shows them / intersecting / it is the earth moving… we are the moving piece”

I would recommend this book to all readers. The poems are very graspable & I think anyone would be able to find something that resonates with them or to learn in this collection. This book is best read humbly, compassionately, often—as lesson & as reminder.

Click here to read my full review of BLOOD ORANGE complete with my full thoughts, further reading suggestions, & more of my favorite quotes!

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[Debbie Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW.

If you read just one book for three Trans Rights Readathon. Make it this one.

This is a book of heart-wrenching poetry by Mx. Yaffa who is a disabled Trans Muslim displaced Palestinian.

The poems DIASPORA, LINES & CIRCLES, and STANDING will definitely stick with me.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this. I think the content and themes were powerful and important to remember in light of everything that's happening in Palestine (which is what the rating is leaning more towards). However, the style of poetry really wasn't for me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood Orange is a short and quick poetry collection, but it packs a devastatingly strong punch. Mx Yaffa writes simple but profound poetry that brings to life their experience as a trans person and as a Palestinian, especially as part of the diaspora and longing for home. Every single poem in this collection is thought provoking or emotionally moving in its own right, but I especially loved "cis white zionist" for addressing the ways in which zionists weaponise supposed Israeli acceptance of queerness as an argument against supporting Palestine (noting in particular that the people who have been most transphobic have been white, not Palestinian). Honestly, this is an excellent collection that I truly cannot recommend enough. I read it through Everand (and I'm extremely grateful to have been able to read it at all), butthis is one I would love to invest in having my own copy of.

[Delaney 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 Stars. Blood Orange by Yaffa As is a beautiful collection of poems. Yaffa As’ writing is haunting and beautiful and I definitely can’t wait to hear more from them. This collection explores identify and culture in an achingly beautiful way.

[lost in epilogue | ཐི༏ཋྀ​​݁ ₊ ݁ . · Rating 4 out of 5]

we are not
the ones who
take land
back
it is land
that takes us

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much-needed Palestinian poetry book. Some of the shortest poems were the most impactful.

[Sam Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don't know how to review poetry

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“our minds warp
under the weight of
injustice in spilled blood
gaslighting and erasure
the weight of
indigenous genocide”

This book of poetry is written by Mx. Yaffa, a disabled, autistic, trans, queer, Muslim, and indigenous Palestinian. They put so much emotion into these works that it’s truly astounding.

Throughout these poems there is commentary on the ongoing genocide in Palestine, trans- and queerness, mental health, and the yearning for home and belonging. Their words are as beautiful as they are jarring, which is essential for the way it grips the reader. These poems are visceral in a way I’ve never read before.

In our current climate, poems and works like these are necessary and important. I highly recommend reading these poems. There is one called Lines and Circle that made me feel a range of emotions, and not every poet can do that.

[isaac⁷ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"we are the
final test
of a humanity
that continues to fail"

i picked this up randomly on a tuesday evening and well, this is some of the best poetry i have ever read. this sits alongside the world that belongs to us as my favourite poetry collection of all time.

"whiteness feeds" is my favourite piece on whiteness i have ever read.

go read. go read palestinian literature.

[Jerney]

It’s beautiful written
Truly a great and devastating poetry book to read


📖 read

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This poetry collection was written after the start of the bombardment on Gaza and is emotional, raw and gripping. It goes over what it is like to watch a genocide of your people unfold while you are living in the diaspora. It also gets at the anger of having your gender and sexual identity be used as a way to justify it. I did not want to put it down and found myself reading some of the poems over and saving a few of them to revisit again and again.

[Tulika (books_and_raves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"if I was not trans
would Palestine be free?
no, then how fucking
dare you bring it up
instead of saying
Free Palestine!"

i'm not at all a poetry person, but then there come some poetries that hit every nerve on my body, lay out my thoughts better than i can.

yaffa's voice is powerful, hauntingly beautiful, bold, rawness exploding from every syllable of the poems. just reading them would leave you churning with the need to do something. it's laced with all the pain of a trans Muslim Indigenous Palestinian and their people being perpetually displaced, dehumanized, dismissed and erased by the whole world.

"we are Palestine
call us by any other
name and we still are
what we are
Palestinians
Palestine
indigenous folks
on our way"

woven with the ache of shouting into the void for believing in their grief, of witnessing their people being gen0cided and unceremoniously wiped out with the whole world standing sentry, their broken pleas buried under ten feet of rubble, of people not speaking up against it at all. the words are a shredder, speaking of an intangible loss of entire families and generations now lost to nuclear bombs and shrapnels.

it dismantles the pinkwashing narrative sewn by israhell too:

"if i was assigned
female at birth
would i be able to
die in Palestine?"

and they highlight cis white zionists' sense of entitlement that lead them to degrade those with darker skin than them, delegating their status to the lowest rung, not deserving the minimal respect and dignity, let alone equality. this gen0cide is revealing the precarious length of white western community's privilege and how they use it as a screen to restrict themselves from seeing and respecting the realities of the other side of the world.

"the caucasıty
of cis-white zionists
to believe they
matter more
than the world"

at the end, it's just jarring that palestinian lives keep being charged with lesser value than white people's, that israhell: the colonizers are getting to be "rescued" while decolonizing palestine is labeled as "terrorism".

"when a child is
lost to rubble
are they also
victorious?
or is
victory in the hands who
pull the trigger?"

[ash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the core emotions and the heart of this collection are present, but obscured by bad writing and bad form. There are maybe two or three really powerful, really sharp lines, but that's about it. It's always difficult to judge poetry for me, both because I don't really like it and also because style is so variable, but the line breaks in this are so random and absurd that partway through I went back and resized the font to see if the shape of the lines was meant to convey something as a whole and then started trying to parse out if it was supposed to be indicative of the way Palestinian lives are cut brutally short or their land broken up, but that, frankly, seems beyond the author's skill in this particular work.

[David Lenton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with poetry. I feel like I should love it - and, sometimes, I do - but it often comes down to whether I can imagine how it would sound when presented as a performance or not.

In the case of 'Blood Orange,' I feel like I could feel that sense of performance for about 3/4 of the poems, while the remaining poems felt a bit flat in comparison. Part of this has to do with the structure of the poems, which doesn't always work for me.

I also think that, thematically, the collection is stronger when it's exploring themes of genocide , place and identity. In contrast, the poems that address the author's trans identity feel a bit...self indulgent in this context? It feels horrible to say that, but it's the best way I can think of to describe how their inclusion in this collection feels to me.

Overall, this is a solid collection of poems that could have been amazing with a bit of editing.

[Steph (starrysteph)]

So much emotion is packed into this small book of poetry – beautiful, clear, compassionate, strong.

I sat down to read Blood Orange as part of a readathon, but I think this would be better experienced with more spaciousness and time to reflect on each poem before moving on. Maybe even reading one or two a day and sitting with them.

These poems are part of Mx. Yaffa’s way of processing their grief, anger, and desire for home and a world where they feel safe and valued. They are defiant, thoughtful, and quietly hopeful.

CW: genocide, colonization, death (child), grief, racism, violence, islamophobia, transphobia

[Abi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to say about this one because I think the subject matter's very important, and I enjoyed the confrontational tone; an appropriate choice that I think elevates the musings... However, I really didn't like the structure/formatting of the actual poetry. It's very Rupi Kaur-adjacent (work I'm not a fan of), stylistically – overly-enjambed syntactical verses for the sake of making each piece 'look' more 'poetic' than it is. Line break after line break. Not for me.

That said, it's accessible; 'graspable' if you're looking for an entry point to Palestinian literature or poetry as a genre. It's also a quick read (at 66-ish pages, depending on format).

[Jane Fudger · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt that this poetry collection was rather self indulgent and certainly not of the calibre of the many Palestinian poets I have read so far. I can honestly say that the poems were rather amateurish and not well thought out.
If I had to pick a poem it would be "Falastten" but even this poem could not invoke a memorable quote. It appeared that They/She was more interested in expressing their own marginalization then anything else. Sorry not my type of poetry collection.

[Stephanie Ridiculous · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am having a hard time thinking of how to review this. Several of the poems caught me full in the chest, and I think it's a worthy collection to add to your TBR. I do think I agree with some of the other reviewers about the form, but it's easy to move past. I wish there was more to this collection; it has a feeling of incompleteness.