THE MAGIC MY BODY BECOMES

Rizkallah, Jess

ISBN 10: 1682260402 / ISBN 13: 9781682260401

Published by University of Arkansas Press, 2017

About this Item

Seller Inventory # NW9781682260401

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE MAGIC MY BODY BECOMES
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682260402
• ISBN 13: 9781682260401
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: NEW

About this title

Synopsis

Winner, 2017 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize

In the magic my body becomes, Jess Rizkallah seeks a vernacular for the inescapable middle ground of being Arab American—a space that she finds, at times, to be too Arab for America and too American for her Lebanese elders.

These poems freely assert gender, sexuality, and religious beliefs while at the same time respecting a generational divide: the younger’s privilege gained by the sacrifice of the older, the impossibility of separating what is wholly hers from what is hers secondhand.

In exploring family history, civil war, trauma, and Lebanon itself, Rizkallah draws from the spirits of canonical Arab and Middle Eastern poets. As a result of her conjuring, the reader feels these spirits begin to exorcise the grief of those who are still alive. Throughout, there is the body, a reclamation and pushback against cultures that simultaneously sexualize and shame women. And there is a softness as inherent as rage, a resisting of stereotypes that too often speak louder than the complexities of a resilient cultural identity.

The magic my body becomes is an exciting new book from an exciting young poet, a love letter to a people as well as a fist in the air.

About the Author

Jess Rizkallah is a Lebanese American writer and illustrator who splits her time between Boston and New York. She is founding editor at Pizza Pi Press and an MFA candidate at New York University.