O: Poems; Zeina Hashem Beck

Zeina Hashem Beck writes at the intersection of the divine and the profane, where she crafts elegant, candid poems that simultaneously exude a boundless curiosity and a deep knowingness. Formally electrifying--from lyrics and triptychs to ghazals and Zeina's own duets, in which English and Arabic echo and contradict each other--O explores the limits of language, notions of home and exile, and stirring visions of motherhood, memory, and faith.

July 5, 2022

About the Author

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet with a BA and an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut. Her first poetry collection, To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press, 2014), won the 2013 Backwaters Prize, judged by esteemed poet Lola Haskins. It was also a runner up for the Julie Suk Award, a category finalist for the 2015 Eric Hoffer Awards, and has been included on Split This Rock's list of recommended poetry books for 2014. Her chapbook, 3arabi Song, has won the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize; it was selected from 1720 submissions. Another chapbook, There Was and How Much There Was, is forthcoming from smith|doorstop as a Laureate's Choice, selected by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Zeina's been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Forward Prize. Her poems have been published in Ploughshares, Nimrod, Poetry Northwest, River Styx, 32 Poems, The Common, Rattle, Tampa Review, The Rialto, Copper Nickel, Mizna, Sukoon, Magma, and Mslexia, among others. She is the founder of PUNCH, a Dubai-based poetry and open mic collective. Zeina is a strong performer of her poetry, and has been featured in literary festivals in the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States.