The Griffin Poetry Prize Winners Are In!! June 14, 2013: And they are (in the International Poetry category): Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems, by Ghassan Zaqtan, and translated by Fady Joudah. Judge Wang Ping writes: What does poetry do? Nothing and everything, like air, water, soil, like birds, fish, trees, like love, spirit, our daily words … It lives with us, in and [...] by Harriet Staff

Special Issue of American Book Review Focuses on Arab-American Literature January 11, 2013: We'd highly recommend this special issue, just out, of American Book Review, edited by Philip Metres, with a focus on Arab-American literature. Among a truckful of good reads are reviews by Dale Smith on Farid Matuk's This Isa Nice Neighborhood, Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky on Ghassan Zaqtan and Fady Joudah's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me; [...] by Harriet Staff

Ghassan Zaqtan Comes to America After Visa Hassle October 22, 2012: From Times Union: Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan, whose application for a visa was held up in a case described as "ethnic profiling," has rescheduled a hastily canceled April U.S. tour and will visit the University at Albany on Tuesday on a triumphant note. "We are so happy to have him here finally, but it was a disappointing and [...] by Harriet Staff