With the publication of The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology, a world long silenced discloses itself in a symphony of lyric utterance at once passionate and profound. These are voices of struggle and forbearance, anguish and survival, nomadic spirit and exilic being, various and innovative, startling in their gifts. Beautifully researched, translated, and compiled, this book is necessary to any appreciation of world literature in our time.
An astonishing, huge accomplishment! This anthology, beginning with Nathalie Handal's large and nuanced opening essay, demolishes stereotypes and allows the world to see and hear the powerful complexity and longing that these poets so memorably articulate. Here we may meet and marvel at 83 Arab women poetsfrom the visionary, elder Lebanese poet Etel Adnan, to the Lebanese American young poet, Dima Hilal"this is an incredible, international gathering of Arab women poets writing from the first quarter of the 20th century through now"."
I cannot put [this book] down and wish to carry it with me everywhere, as a text for remembering how crucial poetry is for the survival of the soul... [T]here Arab women poets are makers of some of this world's finest poetry.
A landmark: the first survey of poetry entirely by Arab women with roots in nearly every Arab country...Strong introductory collection...While the 60-page introduction helps the reader with the inevitable difficulties of context that such a broad survey presents, there is sublime, occasionally fierce beauty in the poems themselves, which arrive with vitality, freshness and surprising power. The book argues well for the broader recognition of Arab poetry, by women or men, as a world literary force.
Handal assembles a catalog of the anomie of displacement that links the eighty-three poets selected for this collection. Her lengthy introduction, both factually impressive and emotionally heartwarming, awakens an excited interest for the poetry that follows. A haunting and pervasive commitment unites these poets...The poetic gift of every woman in the collection is, as always, unique and individual... A number of the poets, especially Arab Americans, write in English, but those needing translation have been blessed with carefully selected artists. The English versions have a grace and an integrity seldom found in translations.
Ancient Arab women are sometimes anthologized, but contemporary poets don't get the attention that they deserve and that this ambitious volume begins to give them...out of a cacophony of voices, styles, and visions, deeper understanding of what it means to be an Arab and a poet...this anthology answers a long-felt need, and its arrival should be celebrated.
In this beautifully produced, elegant and thoroughly researched volume, Nathalie Handal has created a fresh image of the women of the Arab world...a great achievement, and long awaited....She is to be congratulated, further, for the detailed and informative preface, introduction and biographical notes on each poet, translator and reader. This anthology is a wonderful confirmation of the increasing interest in Arab literature by the West over the last few years....Altogether a great anthology that will become a well-worn bedside book as well as a valuable source of reference.
A landmark: the first survey of poetry entirely by Arab women with roots in nearly every Arab country...Strong introductory collection...While the 60-page introduction helps the reader with the inevitable difficulties of context that such a broad survey presents, there is sublime, occasionally fierce beauty in the poems themselves, which arrive with vitality, freshness and surprising power. The book argues well for the broader recognition of Arab poetry, by women or men, as a world literary force.
This rich anthology goes a long way toward introducing contemporary Arab women poets, Arab-American women poets writing in English, and a few other women poets of Arab origin writing in French and Swedish. Its main virtue is that in one handsome volume it presents 209 poems of various lengths and styles by 83 women, some born in the Arab world and some elsewhere, but all rooted in Arab culture and experiencing the modern world as they carve their own identity. The editor, Nathalie Handal, a well-known Arab-American poet...is to be congratulated for compiling this useful volume...Only someone who knows the complex work of editing, making wise selections, seeking qualified translators...can fully appreciate Handal's efforts. In addition, she wrote a 62-page introduction providing a good historical overview of contemporary Arab women's poetry...on reading these poets from A to Z, one is impressed by the symphony of their voices, singular yet united...These voices are distinctive, articulate, authentic, and they dare to say what men poets sometimes dissimulate. Understandably not comprehensive, this anthology is however quite representative of the powerful poetry of Arab women and is a visible confirmation of its effective existence.
Eighty-two Arab women poets from all over the world are gathered in this highly charged, stunning anthology. Editor Nathalie Handal has done an amazing job of presenting a massive body of work by a group of women poets who are hardly known on the international poetry stage...In the male dominated, global poetry community this struggle is endless, but poets like Elmaz Abi-Nader, Safaa Fathy, Dunya Mikhail, Amal Moussa, and Fatma Kandil continue to write, sing, and disrupt the status quo. Handal has organized the work of 40 translators who present outstanding English versions of poetry by women from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine and 10 other countries. This book is a rich magnet from cultures whose women are some of the leading artists of a vibrant world.
The poetic voices of Arab women...are beautifully captured in this timely volume edited by the Arab-American scholar and poet Nathalie Handal...the anthology succeeds eminently in giving the reader the opportunity to appreciate the new and powerful verse of contemporary Arab women...In her sixty-two page introduction, Handal gives a succinct account of the development of Arab poetry in general, then places the poetry of Arab women within it as one of rising importance...Handal is to be congratulated for having compiled this rich anthology and for making Arab women's poetry known and easily accessible. She is also to be thanked for her great efforts in making wise selections; for finding good translators, second translators, and helpful poets and critics as consultant readers...the poems...constitute a symphony of voices articulating Arab's women's hopes, feelings, and experiences so powerfully that a new, hitherto unknown image of Arab women impresses itself on the Western reader's mind...this poetry is authentic in its expression of Arab women's yearning for a place in the sun...This anthology makes visible their admirable struggle and their compelling verbal art.
Stands out as an ambitious attempt to ensure a greater visibility not only for Arab women poets but also for other women poets who are of Arab origin. International in its scope, the anthology presents the works of 83 poets...Handal has sought and succeeded in demonstrating some of the shared experiences and concerns (private, national and universal) that mark their poetry...Handal deserves high praise for producing an anthology that mirrors faithfully Arab women's creative role throughout the last century. Highly recommended.
"The anthology was prepared to eradicate invisibility," writes Nathalie Handal (The Never Field) of Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology. With research help from groups like RAWI (Radius of Arab-American Writers, Inc.) and from Arab-American newspapers and journals like Al Jadid, Handal has gathered work from "most of the older and newer contemporary voices" of the Arab diaspora over 80 poets writing in Arabic, French, English and other languages, and living in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza and the U.S. Handal's introduction, along with biographical notes on the poets and many translators, helps to place them. ( Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
The Poetry Of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology stands as a monument to the manifold literary of Arab women as poets and wordsmiths evoking images and rhythms of language born of their experience, art, and imagination. Of special note is the lengthy introduction, followed by representative selections from more than 80 Arab. women of diverse backgrounds and life experiences. The Blind Goddess: And the blind goddess, when we touched her/like a twinkling of the eye./On the dry shore her hurried gait.../And in her face when sun and moon quarreled,/and in her step when the sea pecked a drop of life/the water receded—having become pregnant—for a time./How can the letter be Seeing, Omnipotent./a peer to the bleated, jealous god./And in the blind goddess when she dimmed/and the earth came to be/and it was the insolence of the ages. (Fadhila Chabbi).
