A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry

by Naomi Foyle (Editor)

Brings together, in English and in Arabic, new work by poets from the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, from the Palestinian diaspora and from within the disputed borders of Israel. Featuring work by Fady Joudah, Mahmoud Darwish, Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, Deema K. Shehabi, Ashraf Fayadh, Mustafa Abu Sneineh, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marwan Makhoul, Farid Bitar, Fatena Al Ghorra, Dareen Tatour, and Sara Saleh, it celebrates the flourishing cultural resistance of the Palestinian people to decades of displacement, occupation, exile and bombardment. Written in free verse and innovative forms, hip-hop rhythms and the Arabic lyric tradition, these poems bear witness both to catastrophe and to the powerful determination to survive it. Ashraf Fayadh and Dareen Tatour are both currently imprisoned, respectively in Saudi Arabia and Israel, on charges relating to their poetry. Smokestack Books will donate a percentage of the receipts of this book to support their legal fees.

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2017

Reviews

[Bogi Takács]

I thought this was an important book that'll introduce readers to new authors, and I appreciated most of the individual poems, but I couldn't help wondering about the way the anthology was put together.

First of all, everyone in this book is Palestinian, except the editor, who is a white Anglo woman. The editorial position is a position of power and there didn't seem to be any critical engagement with that here. Second, the book has a very lengthy foreword by the editor, and while the poems are provided both in Arabic and English, the foreword is only in English. This made me wonder if Arabophone readers weren't considered part of the audience proper.

I also felt that the poems were chosen with an eye to what an Anglo audience would presumably find of interest, but I need to think more about that; so I might add more comments later. For now, I'll mostly talk about individual collections by the people included in this book, but sadly not all of them have collections available in English - I would love to read a whole book by Fatena Al Ghorra in particular.
_____
Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library - who ordered it on my request, thank you!

[maisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of translated Palestinian poetry is absolutely a must read. I love that it’s an anthology because it provides an introduction to a myriad of Palestinian voices which all touch on identity, faith, and the reality of being a Palestinian living on occupied land and as well as beyond. Much of the poetry is striking and potent - little do they shy away from the truth of what’s been occurring in Gaza for decades and how it feels being a Palestinian in today’s time. Absolutely beautiful and raw poetry.

[Jane Fudger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of Palestinian poems mostly describing the various wars, human rights and restrictions imposed by their neighbour Israel. The book was split in two, half in English and half in Arabic. An excellent introduction to the book was made by Naomi Foyle along with ia mini biography of alkl the poets. I particularly enjoyed the collestion of poems by Dareen Tatour who is currently under house arrest for some of her poetry
The collection is well eorth reading but I feel this is a poetry book that needs to be reurned to in order to understand the works impact. This I intend to do in between other reading.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

listened to Jason's daily reads of this over the last month and a half, so I'm loggin it! lovely collection

[Lola Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful <3

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

need to read the arabic poems at some point