Stones Hold Water

Poetry. South Asian Studies. The meeting of times, a secret basement press, the beauty of Urdu, a broken god, the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a woman's riotous tresses are some of the lush images that weave the rich and complex tapestry of poems in Stones Hold Water. The female speaker rejoices in her Indus Valley heritage even as she repines in poems of heartbreak and religious extremism. These poems traverse a landscape of love and loss, bringing the past to our present, expressing unfathomable grief and abiding self-discovery through lyrical storytelling. We find portals - through the melding of language and lore - to spaces redolent with the sights, sounds, smells of Pakistan. Spaces that inspire fear and courage, connection and contention.

Zakia R. Khwaja is a Pakistani-American poet whose work has appeared in Grey Sparrow Journal, the Alabama Review, the Aleph Review, Forge, Willow Springs among others. She has served as a poetry instructor for Desi Writer's Lounge, an initiative for South Asian poets writing in English. Zakia has given readings for the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) and has been published by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. She writes a blog at www.zakiarkhwaja.com on creativity and writing. Zakia's poetry focuses on the rich culture of her Indus Valley heritage as well as regional and global socio-political issues.