In conjunction with our Brave Books: Bold Librarians, Readers & Booksellers of the Arab World children’s area feature, the Poetry Center is presenting a pop-up exhibit during the month of January featuring 21st century Arabic-language poetry in English translation. Pulled from the Poetry Center’s main stacks, these twenty-two books provide a varied and diverse look at poetry from across the Arabic-speaking world, with writers who hail from places including Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and more. If you’re in Tucson, we invite you to come in to the Poetry Center to browse, read, and enjoy. For readers outside of Tucson, a full list of books featured in the exhibit appears below.

This pop-up exhibit was curated by Julie Swarstad Johnson with thanks to Khaled Mattawa for additional suggestions. Brave Books: Bold Librarians, Readers & Booksellers of the Arab World is presented with support from Arizona Humanities.

Books on display:

Adonis, translated by Khaled Mattawa, Selected Poems (Yale University Press, 2010)

Asad Ali, translated by Kabir Helminski with Camille Helminski, Mahmoud Mostafa, and Ibrahim Shihabi, Civilization of Paradise: Revelation Poems (Fons Vitae, 2014)

Fadhil Al-Azzawi, translated by Khaled Mattawa, Miracle Maker (BOA Editions, 2003)

Tamim Al-Barghouti, translated by Radwa Ashour, In Jerusalem and Other Poems (Interlink Books, 2017)

Faraj Bayrakdar, translated by John Mikhail Asfour, Mirrors of Absence (Guernica Editions, 2015)

Ashur Etwebi, translated by Brenda Hillman and Diallah Haidar, Poems from Above the Hill (Parlor Press, 2011)

Ashraf Fayadh, translated by Mona Kareem with Mona Zaki and Jonathan Wright, Instructions Within (The Operating System, 2016)

Jawdat Fakhreddine, translated by Jayson Iwen and Huda Fakhreddine, Lighthouse for the Drowning (BOA Editions, 2017)

Joumana Haddad, edited by Khaled Mattawa, Invitation to a Secret Feast (Tupelo Press, 2008)

Qassim Haddad, translated by Ferial Ghazoul, Chronicles of Majnun Layla and Selected Poems (Syracuse University Press, 2014)

Golan Haji, translated by Stephen Watts and Golan Haji, A Tree Whose Name I Don’t Know (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2017)

Amal Al-Jubouri, translated by Rebecca Gayle Howell with Husam Qaisi, Hagar Before the Occupation, Hagar After the Occupation (Alice James Books, 2011)

Maram Al-Massri, translated by Khaled Mattawa, A Red Cherry on a White-Tiled Floor (Bloodaxe Books, 2004)

Iman Mersal, translated by Khaled Mattawa, These Are Not Oranges, My Love (Sheep Meadow Press, 2008)

Dunya Mikhail, translated by Elizabeth Winslow and Dunya Mikhail, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (New Directions, 2009)

Hassan Najmi, translated by Mbarek Sryfi and Eric Sellin, The Blueness of the Evening (University of Arkansas Press, 2018)

Ibrahim Nasrallah, translated by Omnia Amin and Rick London, Rain Inside (Curbstone Press, 2009)

Amjad Nasser, translated by Fady Joudah and Khaled Mattawa, A Map of Signs and Scents: New and Selected Poems, 1979-2014 (Curbstone Books, 2016)

Samih Al-Qasim, translated by Nazih Kassis, Sadder Than Water: New and Selected Poems (Ibis Editions, 2006)

Saadi Youssef, translated by Khaled Mattawa, Without an Alphabet, Without a Face (Graywolf Press, 2002)

Ghassan Zaqtan, translated by Fady Joudah, The Silence that Remains: Selected Poems 1982-2003 (Copper
Canyon Press, 2017)

Gathering the Tide: An Anthology of Contemporary Arabian Gulf Poetry, edited by Jeff Lodge, Patty Paine, and Samia Touati (Ithaca Press, 2012)