“Mersal offers an exquisite daughter-to-father poem. Titled “The Clot,” this sequence radiates with a combination of tenderness, humor and anguish unmatched in contemporary Arabic poetry.”—From the Introduction by Khaled Mattawa

“My ignorance assumed, under no circumstances that I know of would Iman Mersal veil her face. But I know the beauty of her poetry is often in shadow, often almost hidden from the reader, suddenly revealed in bright Egyptian sunlight that hurts the eye and challenges the mind. Her publisher and English translation editor, we had one little quarrel. She thought the photograph she gave me on request was a little too true for the book – she wanted her face not to be seen so clearly. And so with alluring reluctance, her art connects the modern and traditional, sadly murderous Arabic worlds, the proud and shameful, past and present, her personal joy and suffering. It is a reluctance for which only a master could find the language.”—Stanley Moss

IMAN MERSAL was born in 1966 in the northern Egyptian Delta. She is the author of four books of poems in Arabic: Characterizations, A Dark Alley Suitable for Dance Lessons, Walking As Long As Possible and Alternative Geography. Iman Mersal immigrated to Canada in 1999. She is currently an assistant professor of Arabic at the University of Alberta.

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