A landmark anthology of Palestinian poetry is being published by Chicago-based indie house Haymarket Books this week. Entitled Heaven Looks Like Us the publisher describes it as ‘a love letter to Palestinian ancestors, their descendants, and their land, to all anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles, to a history that will never be forgotten, and to a future in which there thrives a free, free Palestine’.
The collection’s co-editor is George Abraham, a Palestinian American poet, essayist, critic, performance artist. The publisher continues: ‘The book is a battle-cry against the annihilation of a people. As Palestinian history remains haunted by exile, violence, and grief, so, too, are the poems in this anthology. And yet, editors George Abraham and Noor Hindi present these realities alongside other themes that are also true: queer and feminist perspectives, eco-poetry, meditations on love and time, and lineages of protest. This anthology dares to imagine a future beyond a nation-state for Palestinian people everywhere. Contributors include Refaat Alareer, Mahmoud Darwish, Naomi Shihab Nye, Mohammed El-Kurd, A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Hala Alyan, Fady Joudah, and Heba Abu Nada, and many other voices, both established and ascending.’
Haymarket is owned by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, a non-profit organization ‘dedicated to a better understanding of today’s world, and helping to put forward a vision of a better future’. Its central goal is education. It adds: ‘By highlighting alternative voices, especially those that have been pushed to the margins, we hope to contribute to a greater insight and awareness of the injustices that exist in society, and the many efforts at the grassroots to right these wrongs.’