Diaspo/Renga

by Marilyn Hacker, Deema K. Shehabi

Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. Jewish Studies. In 2009, prompted by the Israeli siege of Gaza, Palestinian- American poet Deema Shehabi and Jewish-American poet Marilyn Hacker started a correspondence. It took the form of responding to each other's poems. They continued their poetic dialogue by email until 2012. The result was a sequence of renga called DIASPO/RENGA. The two poetic voices are beautifully meshed together, so that it actually reads as one long poem. The poetry is very rich in imagery, and these images stay with you, as do feelings the poems generate, for example, of unrest, of being in exile. Television shows you the pictures in the streets, this poetry takes you into the homes and minds of people. DIASPO/RENGA is a dignified celebration of humanity in and among atrocities. Although triggered by events in Gaza, it cleverly weaves in other conflicts past and present.

Genres: Poetry

117 pages, Paperback

First published April 24, 2014

About the author

Marilyn Hacker is an American poet, translator, critic, and professor of English.

Her books of poetry include Presentation Piece (1974), which won the National Book Award, Love, Death, and the Changing of the Seasons (1986), and Going Back to the River (1990). In 2009, Hacker won the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for King of a Hundred Horsemen by Marie Étienne, which also garnered the first Robert Fagles Translation Prize from the National Poetry Series. In 2010, she received the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. She was shortlisted for the 2013 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for her translation of Tales of A Severed Head by Rachida Madani.

Reviews

[Bernadette Jansen op de Haar]

This collaboration began when Marilyn Hacker, in Paris, sent Deema Shehabi, in California, an unexpected email containing a renga about a steadfast yet emotionally wounded child lamenting her fate during the invasion of Gaza in January 2009. The result was a sequence of renga, a fascinating poetic conversation called Diaspo/Renga. The two poetic voices are beautifully meshed together, so that it actually reads as one long poem.

[Mills College Library]

811.54 H118d 2014

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the March/April 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

See the full list of the March Nota Benes here: http://bit.ly/march15nb