Flawed Landscape: Poems 1987-2008

Description

Sharif Elmusa is a widely published poet, scholar, and translator. He co-edited, and contributed to, the anthology, Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry (Interlink Books). Elmusa is currently an associate professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. He served for four years as director of the Middle East Studies Program. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Cairo University and doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Palestinian by birth, American by citizenship.

“Flawed Landscape is an extraordinary book that verges between the grief of being displaced and the joy of being alive. Elmusa speaks with the anger of the aggrieved, but also with tenderness and understanding for those he left behind and those he meets along the way. Elmusa is a true poet, a yearner for a better life and for the constancy of time.”
–Pablo Medina, poet, author of Points of Balance/Puntos de apoyo

“Sharif Elmusa writes with exquisite energy and empathy, and has, for decades, been one of my favorite poets. His work is original and necessary. Celebrate this stunning collection!”
–Naomi Shihab Nye, writer and anthologist

“These are an exile’s poems, marked by loss but offered with a generous spirit. Through them, the landscape transforms–revealing, through Elmusa’s vision, its difficult beauty. This is not grounds for despair, then. But ground to work from. That is hope, indeed.”
–Melanie Carter, poet