Zeina Hashem Beck

“O is so full of music and passion for life . . . Zeina Hashem Beck’s poems unfold the abundance of our world.” —Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic From a "brilliant, absolutely essential voice" whose "poems feel like whole worlds" (Naomi Shihab Nye), 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 each other—O explores the limits of language, notions of home and exile, and stirring visions of motherhood, memory, and faith.

Winner of the sixth annual May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize

Poems

Louder Than Hearts

3arabi Song

Hala Alyan

This landmark anthology gathers together almost two-hundred vibrant English-language love poems by living writers of Arab descent. We Call to the Eye and to the Night is an amalgam of eminent poets —Hayan Charara, Leila Chatti, Nathalie Handal, Fady Joudah, and Naomi Shihab Nye, among them—and those who have just begun to make their mark. These poets are descended from diverse countries and represent a breathtaking intersection of voices, experiences, and perspectives. Divided into whimsical sections (named for lines from poems they include), the anthology features an evocative array of erotic and romantic selections, as well as ones portraying love of family, friends, heritage, and homeland. Exquisitely curated and introduced by acclaimed authors Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck, We Call to the Eye and to the Night is at once sexy, sensuous, adventurous, and nostalgic—a treasury of love emanating from the Arab world and its diaspora.

Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent

We Call to the Eye and to the Night

"Zeina Hashem Beck crafts a multifaceted portrait of the people and the streets of Beirut. Part love-letter, part elegy, Hashem Beck's debut collection keeps the city from becoming 'a shadow of a memory, / the memory of a shadow' for poet and reader both, offering us instead 'labyrinths / in which we get lost on purpose.' This collection is as vibrant and sensitive as its subject--the city that 'understands / not being tired of being.' Join me in an enthusiastic welcome for a compelling new voice in Anglophone poetry."--John Hennessy

Zeina Hashem Beck

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