Flying Carpets - Softcover

Habra, Hedy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566569575 ISBN 13: 9781566569576

Publisher: Interlink Books, 2013

Synopsis

A CHARMING AND CAPTIVATING VOYAGE THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
Flying Carpets is a story collection in the grand tradition of Arab storytelling. In it, Habra masterfully waves her writing wand and takes us on a journey as we read about people and places far away and encounter temples and mountain villages, gliding boats and fragrant kitchens, flaming fish and rich tapestries.

The stories recover lost, partially forgotten and imaginary spaces, progressing from the concrete to the universal. The first two sections move between Egypt and Lebanon with a touch of magic realism. In the second half of the collection, the characters become less rooted in time and space as the dreamlike elements intensify. Throughout the book, storytelling and fortunetelling evoke a mythical past that is at the same time lost yet alive: love, loss, the yearning for alternate worlds, and the need to reinvent oneself through art permeate its pages.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Hedy Habra's Flying Carpets is a collection of enchantments and wonders charmingly recounted, deeply imagined, and composed with lyrical exactitude. It belongs to that rare tradition of books whose spells grow increasingly seductive with each new story.—Stuart Dybek, author of Coast of Chicago and Sailing with Magellan

About the Author

Hedy Habra was born in Egypt and is of Lebanese origin. She is the author of two poetry collections, Tea in Heliopolis (Press 53 2013), winner of the 2014 USA Best Book Awards and shortlisted among four finalists for the 2014 International Poetry Book Award and Under Brushstrokes (Press 53 2015), and a short story collection, Flying Carpets (Interlink 2013), winner of the 2013 Arab American National Book Award's Honorable Mention and finalist for the USA Best Book Awards and the 2014 Eric Hoffer Book Award. 
She has authored a book of literary criticism, Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa (Iberoamericana 2012). This book explores the function of the visual in conjunction with the concept of "small worlds" in the narrative of Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Peruvian Nobel recipient. She has an MA and an MFA in English and an MA and PhD in Spanish literature, all from Western Michigan University, where she currently teaches. She is the recipient of WMU's All-University Research and Creative Scholar Award, a Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship Award, the 2013 Alumni Achievements Award, and the 2014 Excellence in Teaching Award from WMU. 
She is a recipient of the Nazim Hikmet Award and her poetry and fiction were shortlisted in several literary competitions. She writes poetry and fiction in French, Spanish, and English and her work was featured in numerous journals and anthologies, including Cimarron Review, Drunken Boat, The Bitter Oleander, Verse Daily, Connotation Press, Poetic Diversity, Blue Fifth Review, Nimrod, Puerto del Sol, Gargoyle Magazine, Rowayat, Sukoon, Mizna, Cutthroat, The New York Quarterly, Cider Press Review, Poet Lore, The Innisfree Review, Danse Macabre, Cumberland River Review, Diode, Levure Littéraire, Silver Birch Press, ArLiJo, The Best of Pirene's Fountain, Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, Letras Femeninas, Alba de América, Inclined to Speak & Dinarzad's Children. 2nd Ed. For more information, visit hedyhabra.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1566569575
• ISBN 13: 9781566569576
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208