Month: September 2014

Poet Amjad Nasser Refused Entry into the U.S.

via Jadaliyya When Your Name is on the Blacklist Sep 30 2014 by Amjad Nasser أمجد ناصر [The cover of Amjad Nasser’s novel, “Land of no Rain.” Image from Bloomsbury] [The Gallatin School of New York University invited Amjad Nasser, one of the major poets of the Arab world, to inaugurate its Gallatin Global Writers series on 30 September. On 27 September, US Homeland Security at Heathrow, London, interrogated Nasser and … Read more Poet Amjad Nasser Refused Entry into the U.S.

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New Releases: 14 Arabic Translations to Watch for this Fall

via the always excellent Arab Literature (in English): by mlynxqualey Fourteen books that give you something to curl up with as the nights grow shorter. The best and most interesting of what’s coming out this fall: September Women of Karantina, Nael Eltoukhy, trans. Robin Moger (AUC Press) A favorite of several prize-winning Egyptian authors, novelist and short-story writer Mohammad Abdelnaby says the book has “an epic tone that laughs at everything, an unusual … Read more New Releases: 14 Arabic Translations to Watch for this Fall

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A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly

!OUT NOW! It is no exaggeration to suggest that Robert Kelly may well be America’s most prolific poet, and certainly one of the most singular and ceaselessly innovative writers the country produced in the 2nd part of the past century. To date, he has published more than 70 books of poetry and fiction — books that reveal a breathtaking range, from freshly minted trobar clus and contemporized sonnet forms, … Read more A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (10)

□ To my delight, the chauffeur was a girl, a tall young lesbian soft-skinned under her green silky mannish uniform. I thought of the softness of her calves inside the boots, & went so far as to insert a finger. She smiled in a business-like way, but made me sit in the back. I could watch her through the glass partition. She would not talk, but did answer specific … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (10)

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (9)

□ It was in front of the cathedral that the lepers gathered, the same in every city. They were the imperfections of the system, hopefully consigned outside it, segregated, wished to death. They showed themselves to men while men were on the steps of the place they went to show themselves to God. Heal me cries the burnt tree. Heal me, the new-born lamb. □ The phone rings twice … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (9)

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Remembering Memory: Literary Sabras and Shatilas

via Arab Literature (in English): BY MLYNXQUALEY on SEPTEMBER 17, 2014 • ( 2 ) It’s now been thirty-two years since the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. Like other events that bend human capacity to understand our species, they continue to show up in literature, re-examined:  The massacre happened in 1982, between September 16 and 18, and is a moment that continues to stand out … Read more Remembering Memory: Literary Sabras and Shatilas

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (8)

□ I’m me, that’s the point of it. I am at your disposal. □ She was at the door, I know it, wrote her letter to me, sealed it in the wood of the door with a kiss, has gone away. We are at the disposal of everybody. □ The books give different numbers for the phases of the Work. The books appear to contradict themselves. In such a … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (8)

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (7)

□ I hold this one’s breasts & this one’s thighs & press myself on this one’s mouth & ask each one in turn: What is it that happened between us at the Pinner in Wakefield, three hundred years ago, September? We learned the secret, & it cost us our deaths. Back, far down in my blood, an orchestra tunes up. My dearest wife, I will hear you forever & … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (7)

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (6)

□ A lifetime supply of goose-quills. Ocean of ink. First lessons in chancery cursive. Have an erection. Keep it. There’s your college of the spirit sank, she said, keep talking big boy. □ It has been my intention to banish all learning from these pages. Only what I have stood under will serve our purposes, gentlemen. Say the blessing &, we will begin. When in the course of human … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (6)

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Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (5)

The third time, she tells me, is the Charm. I try again: Hoping to learn by a sign how the Work prospers, I look out into the morning & see a black hen, her white chick. □ What does she do now she is naked? Is this anti-climax? What did I do when the el train rolled on? What was that kingdom of my Consequence? Climax & anti-climax. The … Read more Robert Kelly: An Alchemical Journal (5)

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