Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar

This event features seven poets from Gaza-Palestine who in May 2021 were working to submit their poems to Peripheries while under Israeli attacks. Five of the poets write in Arabic while two, the co-editors of the special folio in 2021, are bilingual poets, writing in Arabic and English.

With readings by:

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, fiction writer, and essayist from Gaza. He is the founder of the Edward Said Public Library, and in 2019-2020 was a visiting poet and scholar at Harvard University. Abu Toha's debut poetry collection Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is forthcoming from City Lights in April 2022.

Tayseer Abu Odeh is a writer and translator from Jordan. He is currently an assistant professor of comparative literature at Amman Al-Ahliyya University in Jordan.

Nasser Rabah is a Palestinian poet and writer who was born in Gaza. He still lives there today, where he has published five poetry collections and one novel in Arabic. Some of his poetry has been translated into English and French, among other languages. Rabah is member of the General Union of Palestinian Writers.

Born in 1992, Waleed Al-Akkad is a Palestinian poet and short story writer from Gaza. He graduated from Palestine University with a degree in media. Waleed occasionally writes plays. As an undergraduate he won the drama contest at Palestine University.

Born in Libya in 1994, Hamed Ashour is a Palestinian poet living in Gaza. He obtained his BA in Social Work from Al-Quds Open University in Gaza. His collection Wounds That Lick Themselves received special mention by the Qattan Foundation-Palestine's Young Writer’s contest committee and was then published by Al-Ahlia-Jordan in 2018.

Ne’ma Hasan is a Palestinian poet and prose writer with a degree in counselling. Ne’ma is a cultural activist and heads two women’s literary and cultural groups in South Gaza. She is author of four books.

Mona Al-Mosaddar is a Palestinian poet and writer. She obtained her BA in English Literature from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. She works as a translator and writes essays in Arabic and English. Mona published two Arabic poetry collections.

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the digital access provided, please contact Ariella Ruth Goldberg, at agoldberg@hds.harvard.edu or 617-495-4476 in advance of your participation.

Do you remember clapping out the syllables of your name in first grade? Pure syllabic poetry is common in languages like Japanese but rarer in English, which counts both syllables and stresses. Starting with haikus, we will try our hands at writing tankas, nonets, roundels, cinquains, and diamantes. And as we go along, we’ll applaud each other’s syllabic creations and explore how poets like Yeats, Thomas and Plath used the syllabic form.

Susan Roney-O’Brien earned her MFA at Warren Wilson College and is the author of five poetry collections. She hosts monthly poetry readings, teaches workshops and coordinates the Stanley Kunitz summer writing series.