Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories

O

Zeina Hashem Beck

From a "brilliant, absolutely essential voice" whose "poems feel like whole worlds" (Naomi Shihab Nye) comes a poetry collection considering the body physical, the body politic, and the body sacred.
Zeina Hashem Beck writes at the intersection of the divine and the profane, where she crafts elegant, candid poems that simultaneously exude a boundless curiosity and a deep knowingness. Formally electrifying - from lyrics and triptychs to ghazals and Zeina's own duets, in which English and Arabic echo and contradict one another - O explores the limits of language, notions of home and exile, and stirring visions of motherhood, memory, and faith.

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet and the author of two previous full-length collections of poetry: Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing, 2017) and To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press, 2014), as well as two chapbooks: 3arabi Song (Rattle, 2016) and There Was and How Much There Was (smith|doorstop, 2016). Educated in Arabic, English, and French, Zeina has a BA and an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut. Her poem "Maqam" won Poetry's 2017 Frederick Bock Prize, and her work appeared in The New York Times, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere. Zeina is the co-creator and co-host of Maqsouda, a podcast about Arabic poetry produced by Sowt.
Available products
Book

Published 2022-07-05 by Penguin Poets Trade Paperback

Comments

Ultimately, it is by knowing her pain so intimately that Beck builds her faith. In a world where all the tensions of motherhood and exile exist, there is an understanding of being whole not just in memory, but in reality. The last poem, "Morning Prayer" is a list of what the poet is thankful for, and it ends, "Little world little world I love you." O has taken the reader through a journey of abandonment and reclamation and now it is back to prayer. It is a full circle. It is all-encompassing. It is "O. Read more...

From lyrics and triptychs to ghazals and Beck's own duets, in which English and Arabic echo and contradict each other - O explores the limits of language, notions of home and exile, and visions of motherhood, memory, and faith. Read more...

Interview Read more...

Formally electrifyingfrom lyrics and triptychs to ghazals and Zeina's own duets, in which English and Arabic echo and contradict each otherO explores the limits of language, notions of home and exile, and stirring visions of motherhood, memory, and faith. Read more...

In this collection, Zeina Hashem Beck explores memory, home, motherhood and more. It is a collection that plays with language and looks absolutely stunning. Ilya Kaminsky says, "O is so full of music and passion for life... Zeina Hashem Beck's poems unfold the abundance of our world." Read more...

Excerpt:THE BODY FAILS IN A FOREIGN CITY - A poem for Sunday Read more...