Böcker av Hedy Habra

Internationally acclaimed ekphrastic poet Hedy Habra's most recent collection is luminous and powerful in its exploration of women and art. Or Did You Ever See The Other Side? turns on a superb and often spellbinding use of anaphora exploring artists, muses and creative practice. Reminiscent of Anne Carson's Short Talks, Habra composes poems as alternatives including on topics such as Half-Open Doors, Hot Flashes, Heartbeats, Fractals, Lovers' Encounters on TV Shows, Ciphers, and Keys. These ultimately culminate in the question, "Or What Is Life If Not A Constant Carving Of Oneself?" Using diverse sources including art from Remedios Varo, Shiharu Shiota, and Wadada Leo Smith, this is poetry as "mobilis in mobile," expressing haunting and indelible feminist voicings of women in art. -Cassandra Atherton, Professor of Writing and Literature, Melbourne, Australia

The poems in The Taste of the Earth weave together personal history with the complex cultural heritage of Hedy Habra's countries of origin. Steeped in memories, loss and longing, these poems invite the reader to revisit Egypt's mythical past and Lebanon's turmoil, recalling the intersecting roots of culture and language in an act of artistic recollection that bridges time and space. Through the lyrical power of the senses, Habra's poems bring to life scenes of strife and upheaval as well as profound joy. Such images linger in the mind and keep evolving in search for the permanence of beauty within suffering as they are evoked by trees, houses, fountains and familiar objects, each voice offering with its testimony a broader perspective on the interconnectedness of worlds and universality of emotions.

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.