If God Is a Virus

by Seema Yasmin

Based on original reporting from West Africa and the United States,and the poet’s experiences as a doctor and journalist, If God Is A Virus charts the course of the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in history, telling the stories of Ebola survivors, outbreak responders, journalists and the virus itself. Documentary poems explore which human lives are valued, how editorial decisions are weighed, what role the aid industrial complex plays in crises, and how medical myths and rumor can travel faster than microbes.

These poems also give voice to the virus. Eight percent of the human genome is inherited from viruses and the human placenta would not exist without a gene descended from a virus. If God Is A Virus reimagines viruses as givers of life and even authors of a viral-human self-help book.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Science, Health, Politics, Africa, Medicine

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 6, 2021

About the author

Muslim Women Are Everything is out as a book, ebook and an audio book now!

I'm a medical doctor, journalist and author. My first book, The Impatient Dr. Lange: One Man's Fight to end the HIV Epidemic, tells the story of my mentor who was killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot out of the sky. Dr. Lange dedicated his life to fighting HIV and was searching for a cure when he was killed.

My next books, Viral BS, (Johns Hopkins University Press, November 2020) is about medical myths and how health hoaxes can travel farther than accurate information.

Reviews

[Jessica Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viruses have been on the forefront of everyone's mind for the past year. But for some, viruses have always been a big part of their work. Seema Yasmin is a medical doctor and a journalist who has worked the front line of outbreaks, including Ebola. In this new collection of poems, she uses her personal experiences as a female doctor of color working those front lines. She recounts times that people haven't respected her or asked for another doctor because of her gender or her skin color. She also shares in poetry form the dichotomy between how the world reacts to an outbreak that causes deaths of white people vs. those that cause deaths of black people. This collection as a well-done personal examination of virus with special attention to how reactions are impacted by sexism and racism. Recommend this one!


Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love science/medicine? Love poetry? Looking for a gut punch? Look no further than this poetry collection written by Dr. Seema Yasmin as the deadly Ebola outbreak was unfolding in West Africa and in the US.

The way she weaves together talking about science and medicine and personal anecdote and media coverage and so many other topics was just so hard-hitting and refreshing. Can something be a breath of fresh air and yet knock the wind out of you? This would be that.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

• IF GOD IS A VIRUS by Seema Yasmin from Haymarket Books // Yasmin is a physician, science educator, AND a poet - largely based on her work in west Africa during the 2014 Ebola crisis, this one truly echoes in our own pandemic world - fighting mis/dis-information surrounding the virus, religious communities, and personal poems. This one was 🔥

[morallyblackchaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

BOOK REVIEW!!
If God is a Virus by Dr. Seema Yasmin
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

“... Am woman only with feet in metal stirrups. Queer only with my tongue inside another woman ...”

How, HOW am I so lucky to get ARCs like this sent to me? Through my partnership with Books Forward PR, I was able to request two ARCs by this amazing author, and If God is a Virus was the first one I chose to dive into (Viral BS is next!).

I had completely engulfed this collection of poetry within an hour. I couldn’t put it down. This was one of those books where you want to wash every page in highlighter because every sentence resonates within your soul. This left me speechless and thinking, aching and filled with sadness. This came about during the perfect time with COVID-19 deaths crossing the threshold of 400,000 in the US.

Following the course of the largest and deadliest Ebola epidemic in history through Dr. Yasmin’s words was a journey we all need to take. Hearing these words told by Ebola survivors, outbreak responders, journalists, and the virus itself gave voice to the epidemic. We are inherited from viruses and the human placenta would not exist without a gene descended from a virus. So maybe God is a virus after all? 🦠

Now, don’t hate me.. But this isn’t available until April 6, 2021. Please set an alarm in your phone or jot a note down on your calendar; this is a title you DO NOT want to miss.

I give my heart full of gratitude to Books Forward PR for providing me the opportunity to read this early, and to Dr. Seema Yasmin for sharing these words.


(@fyebooks on Instagram!)

[Kerri Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not even sure you can call this a collection of poems. At least, I'm not sure it's what I would call it. What I would call it is brilliant. 

This is the sort of collection I think every human should read. 

This is the sort of collection I wish had existed back when multiple "advisors" [and a broken undergrad system] told me I couldn't be a biology + lit major simultaneously. 

Standouts for me upon this first read: 

"Disease Is Not the Only Thing That Spreads"

"If God Is a Virus" and specifically these opening lines: 
She is vexed.
Absolutely done
with your shit.

"Life of the Party"
"Outbreak Bingo"
"Neologisms"
"What They Hear When They Listen to Your Heart"

"Big Sister Teaches Me How to Ululate"
On the ferry to Tangier I shriek across the sea. 

... All my life I was told
women must swallow sand
unless we are sounding
a warning.

"Forty-One Surah Yaseens"
Qur'an is cautery.

In this prayer circle we
women sway and pray silently,

for long hair and poison,
for all of the things that help us survive.


[Five sticky stars for being one of the most memorable and unique poetry collections I've read in years, and for the sort of knowledge / experimentation / honesty I perpetually hope is infectious.]

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poetry focusing on the Ebola outbreak, growing up a woman of color, and prejudices faced.

from If God Is a Virus: "She is vexed. / Absolutely done / with your shit. / God wants to know / why you didn't the a flu / shot"

from Surrogate Marker: "I have always been serving in place of another / surrogate marker of a thing unseen, because doctor // is ungodly when woman, and woman is ungodly / when anything other than she is supposed to be."

from Anti Body: "Aspirin was tested in Nazi concentration camps and all your faves are problematic period / pain is political, analgesia divisive. Do not bleed in peace. Bleed knowing."

[Akanksha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt reinvigorated after this collection, and I suspect it’s because of how the seemingly disparate fields of poetry and medicine are employed to understand the frontlines of a pandemic. If God Is A Virus is sharp, heartbreaking and excellent. Read it!

more on nosherbetlemons✨✨

[Vivek · Rating 4 out of 5]

During the pandemic I got to a point where I didn’t have the patience to journal anymore: recounting all of my thoughts into that format felt overwhelming. But writing poems was somehow an easier, more efficient way to capture what I was feeling.

Dr. Yasmin wrote some of these poems to supplement her reporting in Liberia during one of the Ebola outbreaks, and they powerfully distill her observations, both directly, as she bears witness to the suffering of patients, and in a more meta way, like her roast of New York Times coverage (“All the News That’s Fit to Print,” probably my favorite in this book).

I also really liked her poems making sense of her experiences as a South Asian Muslim woman doctor: white patients asking for white doctors, the contradiction of aunties wanting women doctors but discouraging their own daughters from pursuing medicine (“Surrogate Marker”), realizing how much Western medicine still deifies or preserves the legacy of Nazis and other racists (“Anti Body”), a nurse assuming a brown family doesn’t speak English and them taking advantage of it (“The Queen’s English”).

Going to use this to kick off a little mini-Sealey challenge for myself through the end of the year.

[Kareena | kareenbeanreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry dives into so many topics, such as racism, sexism, bureaucracy, politics in health, and so many more. While these poems follow the multiple Ebola epidemics in the form of documentary poems, many of these sentiments are seen and reflected in today’s COVID-19 pandemic.

I work in the field of public health as an infectious disease epidemiologist - with that educational and professional background as well as being a South Asian woman like the author, this book of poetry was absolutely perfect for me. There have been many times I’ve been floored by the accuracy of Dr. Seema Yasmin’s words, how she seems to be inside my brain and writing poetry of exact sentiments I’ve had while learning and working in this field. But of course one doesn’t have the be of this background or in this field to appreciate or enjoy this fabulous book of poetry!

This lovely book will be published very soon on April 6, 2021.

A huge thank you to Books Forward PR for the gifted ARC.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“History is our favorite subject to rewrite.” —Anti Body

This book blew my mind and broke my heart. The god of the title takes various forms, none of them kind or compassionate, and the speaker’s voice in these poems is heavy with love and anger. As a chronicle of the 2014 Ebola outbreak, as well as the bigger picture of challenges and inequities faced by doctors and patients who are female and/or of color around the world, it bears witness to unquantifiable moments of suffering. There is also bittersweet humor and formal playfulness, especially in created forms like a family tree poem called “Self-Portrait as a Virus.” The book contains multiple titular poems, all showing different aspects of Yasmin’s vision of a complex, life-and-death-giving virus-god. Basically, Yasmin is an unflinchingly badass doctor-poet.

[Jordyn Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely amazing. It was educational, passionate, and extremely well written. When I read a book like this I am reminded of just how lucky I am to receive advanced copies of books! This was science in the best form of art (poetry). Parts of this book touch on being on the front lines during an outbreak and gave me an entirely new perspective and respect for what these people do, especially with our current pandemic. I could not put this book down, and absolutely loved reading it!

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Seema Yasmin’s debut poetry collection, If God Is A Virus , is a beautifully-crafted example of interdisciplinary work, combining medical history, scientific facts, data, and art in the name of poetry. Drawing on first-hand journalistic and medical experiences from West Africa and the United States, Yasmin highlights a number of challenging concepts, from the specific cruelties and hardships suffered from the largest Ebola epidemic in history to the broader perspective of the value of human life.

With such intense, harrowing, and sometimes-controversial topics at hand, this collection is immaculately composed and arranged so as to demonstrate Yasmin’s expert knowledge and enriching personal experience with the concepts and events depicted. Through these poems, she explores themes including the horrors of colonialism and war as well as the impact of racism (overt and subconscious) on media representation, medical care, and empathy. She does not shy away from these things, illustrating them with vivid detail that may turn the stomach, perhaps in an effort to compel readers to understand, sympathize, or contemplate.

From the first poem entitled “Disease Is Not the Only Thing That Spreads,” Yasmin strikes her readers with visceral images and poignant language—disease is deadly, but so, too, is colonialism, for-profit medical models, and ill-informed “phobias.” We are struck with the bluntness of this flagship poem through its use of frequent fragments and decisive periods. This is not a piece designed to evoke longing or nostalgia or anything soft and human; it is instead capable of coaxing fury, lament, fear, disgust. Readers must cope with the harsh imagery (with mentions of “twisting bowels” and “fermenting torment” of note) without respite—by design, presumably, because the subjects of this poem (of the collection) have been forced to endure the same fate. By comparison, the readership experience is mundane, but it disturbs and compels the reader immediately with precise and evocative language, deliberate style, and abrasive descriptions.

The first appearance of a poem sharing the name of the book is stark in its brevity and expert use of white space. There is rage here as well as disappointment; offering pointed commentary on the anti-vaxxer ideology as well as the rampant hypocrisy in such circles (such as refusing to receive vaccinations but dabbling in recreational drugs), this poem presents a strange relationship between autonomy, religion, healthcare, and science. Yes, you may make decisions for yourself. Yes, God has wishes and plans. Yes, both of these things can contradict themselves, and yes, there are other players involved who can change the tide, rewrite fate, make every intention and goal irrelevant. It’s a fascinating piece that is carefully constructed and deserving of thoughtful consideration.

A fascinating element of Yasmin’s collection of poetry is the blend of media. Her poetry alone comes in varying forms, toying with space and structure, but of note, too, is the inclusion of other materials, from a scanned and annotated/edited/doctored copy of the Hippocratic Oath to the inclusion of a news article screenshot following two poems (which claimed two parts of the article’s title). This latter example especially proves effective in carrying the reader through the collection; we are reminded that these poems are not just visceral and evocative but that they are real and true, in all their pain and graphic detail. We are forced to reconcile with facts, not just the language she uses and our reactions to it.

Near the middle of the collection, we witness a unique stylistic approach to the blending of science and poetry through the parallelism of “Filovirus Phylogenetic Tree,” which serves to illustrate historical and medical history, and “Self-Portrait as Virus,” which uses a similar visual structure to present a simple but enticing piece about family, individualism, heritage, and the defiance of expectations/norms (regarding the preservation of lineage).

As we progress through the collection, Yasmin dips deeper into the facts and reality, forcing us to recognize yet again the effects of unchecked and unchallenged racism, bias, and bigotry, especially in positions (and fields) of power. She presents a chart which features the results of a 2016 study on biologically implausible beliefs and the percentage of participating medical students and doctors who, nonetheless, believe them. The title of this piece, “What They Hear When They Listen to Your Heart,” coupled with the presented findings, contributes to the realization of something that many people of color already know—the medical field houses racial biases that can actively contribute to a disparity of care or even an increase in harm. White medical students and professionals may not have a truly objective perspective; they are prone to false beliefs as most people are. The problem therein resides within the fact that a doctor holds considerable power over the health and well-being of their patients; with unchecked biases and implausible beliefs, doctors provide and prescribe different care to patients of color, resulting in healthcare inequality that, quite frankly, can kill.

Also of particular note are the poems within this collection that depict intersectionality, namely of identity; “Syndemics'' deviates from the more-medically focused pieces but remains true to the themes of bias, racism, xeno-/islamo-/homophobia, and how these bigotries impact the treatment and perception of others. Yasmin does a remarkable job here in exploring the implications of personal and social identities—who we are and who we are perceived to be may vary depending on circumstances, surrounded, actions, etc. And when it comes to intersectional identities, such as Yasmin’s own queer, brown, Muslim woman identity, she questions which came first and which is true?

Seema Yasmin’s efforts to intertwine fact and lyricism are effective, poignant, and astounding; this collection is a delightful, if at times suitably depressing and horrifying, read. I highly recommend this collection to anyone with a taste for well-woven but intricate language, technical and unabashed history/science, and hard-hitting socio-political commentary.

An Emmy Award-winning journalist, disease detective, medical doctor, and author, Dr. Seema Yasmin has done an incredible job with this poetry debut. You can also check out her recent book, Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them , if you are interested in learning more about the communicable nature of misinformation, particularly in regards to health and medicine. This book aims to debunk false beliefs and educate readers on some medical facts that might not be common knowledge. With a masterful blend of history, data, and empathy conveyed through a playful yet professional voice, Viral BS is a worthwhile read. Plus, Yasmin also made a Buzzfeed quiz regarding medical misinformation, so test your know-how before reading the book!
If God Is A Virus will be available on April 6, and you can pre-order a copy today. You can also connect with Yasmin on Twitter!

[Tutankhamun18 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a piece of art. I was internally screaming and stunned into silence while reading this. Dr.Seema Yasmin is a medical doctor and poet who wrotes about biological realities - pandemics, infections, evolution, viruses, pregnancy, childbirth and socially constructed realities - racism in the medical industry, sexism in patients, racism and classism in Western aid structures, prejudice. Across evoking god, providing the perspective of a virus, the male doctor breezing through parties, doctoring abroad as a tourist, the prejudices and power dynamics that shape a pandemic response and being a brown woman doctor and why there are so few she has one central theme from which all others flow: power.

Her poetry is breathtaking, playing with form and structure in a playful yet not experimental (in the sense that is doesnt feel like something experimental that rips you from the reading experience) way. I particularly liked is how interconnected all the poems were and how they spoke to each other, also she has 5 poems titled God Is A Virus. So this is really a poetry collection that you should read and not just one poem - but trust me you will want to! One frankly brilliant but new to me technique used often is paronomasia, where the use of “dis-ease” is a visual pun that has a double meaning conveying both lack of ease and disease. I LOVE this.

This whole collection is so clever and so creative and makes me love art and science so much because together they are incandescent! I LOVED every page.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So. What else spreads:
knots of grief twisting bowels into distended loops of fermenting torment.
No days of mourning.
Two years of outside intervention.
Armies.
Conviction.
Belief that this will spread & spread.
That all contagions wax endemic. This one will never end."

Yasmin's poetry seems fairly timely - an NHS doctor who has worked in Botswana on the Ebola pandemic, these poems explore race, gender, healthcare and yes, viruses. When they succeed, they hit very, very hard.

"lady doctor
you say you want a lady doctor
only a lady doctor can lift abaayah lower salwaar peer under kamees
but you snatched the stethoscope out of your little girl’s hand didn’t you?
didn’t you say that’s your bhai’s toy a boy’s toy leave it let’s go to the kitchen learn to fry okra before we stew okra that way we won’t eat slimy okra"

The anthology was a bit hit and miss for me, but the potent mix of topics is always doing something interesting, even when it doesn't entirely succeed. I will be checking out her other work.
"God is an infection; her incubation period as long as three sermons on the mount
replication rate amplified by saline sweat and fear.
A virus gave you a gene called SYN so you could grow placentas.
SYN fuses baby to mother fuses uterus to placenta.
A virus blew air inside your drowning baby’s pigeon chest put some respect on her phospholipid membranes. Watch God’s fat molecules shimmer"

[Bethany (bookish.bethany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’all, this book just hit different. IF GOD IS A VIRUS by Dr. Seema Yasmin is a collection of poems based on the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Yasmin is a doctor and a journalist, and her newest works is based on both her personal experiences and the reporting on the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

While I could draw so many parallels between this work and the current, global pandemic, this collections is so much greater than that. It addresses misogyny in the medical field, our obsession with being busy, colonialism, maternal mortality, the white savior complex during relief missions, cultural differences in medical care, and so so much more.

The poems were original, poignant and many of them will hit you right in the heart. I am so thankful to @booksforwardpr and @haymarketbooks for sharing @drseemayasmin’s beautiful words with me. #gifted

IF GOD IS A VIRUS releases on April 6!

CW // death; mourning; misogyny; racism; white savior complex; medical scenes

https://www.instagram.com/bookish.bet...

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in this collection that address the intersection of race, religion, sexuality, and/or gender in medical settings are amongst the most poignant in Seema Yasmin's If God Is a Virus. "Hippocratic Oath," "When the White Patient Asks for a White Doctor," and "The Queen's English" are amongst my favorite. However, I do often find the technical language across many poems in this collection disrupt my experiences with these verses as these words create a clinical distance that feels antithetical to the emotional immersion lyrical poetry typically provides. I love how Seema Yasmin uses her frontline experiences as a doctor to inform so many of these poems. I only wish they were more accessible for those of us who lack the medical literacy to fully appreciate the language.

[Andrea Pulido · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been interested in medicine and medical advances, but given my background in psych, I have often focused on mental health and neuroscience.

During this pandemic I have found myself drawn to epidemiology and while I have read a lot of scientific articles, I have also read stories about how viruses affect people, family, and communities. How those neediest among us are often affected disproportionately and yet we are seldom aware or seldom care because it has not touched one of us.

Because of this, I instantly jumped on the opportunity to review an ARC of If God Is A Virus by Dr. Seema Yasmin. This is a collection of poems based on the original reporting from West Africa and the US during the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Yasmin is a doctor and a journalist and thus her unique perspective allows us to see the epidemic from multiple lenses in order to give voice to multiple key players, including the virus.

Her poems are poignant and they ask us to understand the true suffering of people, especially those so different from us. It also asks us to understand that not all virus are evil and that some serve bigger purposes and thus we should continue to study them so that we can reap the benefits and avoid the hurt.

In a time where so many of her poems can also be used to describe the Covid-19 pandemic, I think her writing are crucial and timely. I highly recommend this and I am grateful to @booksforwardpr for providing me with an ARC.

[Caitlin]

I will not pretend that If God is a Virus is always easy to ready, but I read it fast, and could not put it down, captivated by the beauty and the horror and the hope and the humor. I will read it again, more slowly: savor each word, each space, each bit of punctuation. In midst of the harsh landscapes wrought by white supremacy and by unrelenting viruses Yasmin brings us beauty and joy and humor, defiant in the face of a crushing world.

My full review: https://essentiallyanerd.wordpress.co...

[Brianna Noelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the author and publisher for an ARC of this poetry collection in exchange for an honest review!!
This collection is definitely unique and releasing during a global pandemic, it's a little surreal feeling. The author is incredibly smart and talented, the poems are filled with heartbreak and very cool inclusions from news and medical articles. This was definitely a different experience than I'm used to but I really enjoyed it!

[ELK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was very excited to find a poetry collection with health inequity at its center. Really enjoyed this collection and the scope of perspective it conveys (e.g., that of a woman of color who is also a medical doctor/researcher who is also a poet who is also muslim who is also a science journalist). A much-needed contribution -- to poetry, to literature and to society. Was disappointed to not see covid mentioned though.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard for me to review poetry because I often can't explain why I like some poems and not others. All I can say is I found this book to be clever, thought-provoking, and emotionally moving. Addressing viruses and healthcare and racial tensions, not to mention the issues of gender, through the lens of truly beautiful word play is very impressive to me. I love this book of poems.

[Jenn]

"I have always been serving in place of another
surrogate marker of a thing unseen, because doctor

is ungodly when woman, and woman is ungodly
when anything other than she is supposed to be"

Very unique and powerful collection of poems. Don't think I've ever read medicine/science related poetry before!

[Madeleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fact that Yasmin wrote most/all of these poems well before covid is...something. The last two years have made explicit--over and over again--what is usually supposed to remain under a cloud of plausible deniability: that when some people are dying the powerful will drop everything to save lives, and when other people are dying we shrug and move on with our days.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quotes:

On time is a Western construct for people stuck in the Cult of Busy. Who said you would always be on time anyway? Be unbusy. Be outrageously late.

Do not bleed in peace. Bleed knowing.

We are pathologized. And still, I find comfort in the code, order in the disorders. Something must be wrong with me.

[Ani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry as Medicine Against Racist Patriarchy

Great poetry will break us open, exposing festering wounds so they can heal better.

Seems Yasmin’s work is tremendously powerful. Her insightful words telling the consequences of generations of patriarchal expectations, of stunted colonial perspectives, and weaponized Whiteness of public health.

[Fred Dameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great work by Yasmin. She has poems that speak to power by showing what those with outlive to go through. Those who are NOT white, privileged, women, etc. The pain and suffering that these disembodied voices have not spoken or heard have a voice with Seema Yasmin.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was amazing. I loved every single poem in this collection. The minute I finished, I wanted to re-read the whole thing again, as it expands in the mind and heart. As a collection it's brilliant, but each individual poem is a gem on its own. It's just a beautiful book.

[Jen Steed Knapp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Public health. An epidemic. White supremacy. Patriarchy. Capitalism.

Hubris.

All told in various forms of poetry. A great read, if nothing more than its being incredibly different than anything else out there.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible mixture of poetry, science, journalism, and social/political commentary, this collection focuses on viruses, specifically Ebola.

Some of my favorite poems include:
Dis-ease
Surrogate Marker
Anamnesis
Anti Body

[Layna T]

poetry isn’t my fav genre but this was relevant to COVID times, some good commentary and thoughts