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#ReadingChallenge #poetry #readingwithmaja
A brilliant selection of poems , covers the inheritance of violence from Partition to our current age.Her take on being a Pakistani Muslim woman in America is challenging & interesting. Lyrical, modern, & historical all at the same time.

Captivating

I learned so much from this collection.

Loved this collection of poems.

Grandma took the kids so I could watch the author of this amazing collection, Fatimah Asghar, do a reading. I got to read and watch with my Thanksgiving leftovers and pomegranate soda; it was so lovely and relaxing!!

And this collection truly is so amazing and powerful. Highly recommend!!!

....you speak a language until you don't. until you only recognize it between your auntie's lips. your father was fluent in four languages. you're illiterate in the tongues of your father. your grandfather wrote persian poetry on glasses. maybe. you can't remember. you made it up. someone lied. you're a daughter until they bury your mother. until you're not invited to your father's funeral.

This #poetry collection is destroying me.

❤️

This is the hardest prompt of my #ReadYourSign challenge that I did- reading the majority of a book after 10pm. I used to be a night owl, but now I'm usually in bed by then. A book of poetry, that was also on my TBR pile, proved just the thing to keep me awake and reading. This collection of poems is raw and powerful, gorgeous and brutal, and some of these words will echo in my soul for years to come.
@Clwojick @Meaw_Catlady

One of my favorite dedication pages - so much of my tried and true family is not related to me, and I feel so incredibly grateful to be loved so deeply outside of those biological boundaries. Looking forward to extending my bookloving family by getting to know you all. ❤️ #bookfam @Hestapleton

Great perspective.

Went to Barnes & Noble tonight because I finally felt well enough to leave the house. I bought this book of poetry, and on the way out saw The Ultimate Guide to Supernatural, which is an updated version of the previous one I have and covers all 15 seasons. Of course I had to buy it. 😊

This is a hard one for me to review. It‘s a powerful, difficult, innovative collection of poetry, and I had to keep Google handy to look up terms and events I was unfamiliar with. I feel like I don‘t have the context/knowledge to understand the backdrop to so many of these poems, but they also pushed me to seek out more background as I was reading. I‘m glad I read it.

Microaggression Bingo:

🔲 “But you are lucky you have something exotic to write about!”
🔲 Editor recommends you add more white people to your story to be more relatable
🔲 “Oh, but you don‘t *really* seem Muslim.”
🔲 “You‘re from Kashmir? I have a from there!”
🔲 Casting call to audition for Battered Hijabi Woman # 42

Loved this collection of poems. Some of the experimental forms worked better than others, but overall this was outstanding. Moving, vibrant, confident. Will definitely revisit.

#7days7covers #covercrush Day 2

7 days, 7 covers, no explanation.
@vivastory

Really loved this powerful book of poetry. Feminist in a pull-no-punches way, intersectional without shoving it down your throat. Made me think about legacies both small and culturally.

Powerful book of poetry on belonging and identity and family and loss. I thought the poems about partition (between India/Pakistan/Bangladesh) in the ‘40s were especially moving.

Gorgeous poetry! Love, loss, family, friendship...Asghar is able to capture so much in so few words. I also learned a little about The Partition of India (1947), into India and Pakistan, and how this sudden split sowed chaos and ripped families, cultures and lives apart. An estimated 14 million people were displaced. I felt ashamed that I knew nothing about this part of history and am grateful to Asghar and others who do the labor of teaching.

If They Come For Us
by Fatimah Asghar
2018
One World
4.5 / 5.0

Emotionally deep and moving, the poem collected here are very powerful, about identity, sexuality, race and growing up a Pakistani Muslim in America.
The beauty of her words, the rawness of her emotions, Asghar is a truly brilliant mind and a beautiful poet.
Wonderful....Recommended.

#poetry

This was the best #poetry collection of 2018 in my judgment. Here‘s a short review I wrote for the Seattle Book Review that was recently published: https://seattlebookreview.com/product/if-they-come-for-us-poems/

This book was excellent, the poems were wonderful. Very creative and on point. I learned things.

#poetry

Heartbreaking, beautiful, moving, and powerful, Fatimah Asghar writes about her experience growing up as an orphaned Pakistani Muslim woman in the U.S., as well as giving voice to other marginalized peoples.

#readingwomenofcolor2019
#poetry

Another post about books I haven‘t read yet! These two were my planned reads a few weekends ago but as with most of my reading plans (looking at you, TBR) they got derailed a bit. That said, these are both keepers!

If They Come for Us is gorgeous. I‘ve read several poems so far and each one I‘ve read at least twice. It‘s going to be a heartbreaker.

Paperback Crush is full of nostalgia and will be great to read a bit at a time when the mood hits.

#24in48 Hour 18: #WeNeedDiverseBooks | I read this fantastic collection of poems when it was first released last August, & I often find myself returning to these poems, which explore the poet‘s relationship to her family, her sexuality, & her histories, both personal & global. It‘s the first time I‘ve felt like I saw parts of my own experience in poetry. I felt it changed the landscape of what is possible for me to write about in my own work ♥️

I loved these poems. We carry our history wherever we go, and I am so impressed when a poet can weave together individual experience and world events in a line or two. Highly recommended.

What a great way to start off the year. These poems are by turns intense, tender, funny, poignant, and more besides. There‘s a running theme of partition, both the Partition of India and the ways in which people separate and are separated. But always there is this defiance of partition, too, a refusal to see people as simply separate or unified, affirming both our uniqueness and our community.

Been thinking about this poem all day. How the white space separates the stanzas. And what that does in the context of a poem about separation. And how, as the poem progresses, the words move toward a defiance of that separation. It‘s really something.

First book of 2019.

A vibrant, outstanding collection of poetry—in forms that range from traditional to experimental—& cover a spectrum of emotions: fierce, sad, hopeful, raw, vulnerable, angry, playful & joyful. Orphaned young, Asghar tackles issues of identity & belonging, racism & misogyny, & the trauma passed down through generations by the Partition of India. #Muslim #LGBTQ

I promised myself I‘d be naked,
here, in all this nature, but the first day
I found a tick clinging to my arm hair for dear
life & decided no way I‘m exposing
my pussy to the elements. My love
for nature is like my love for most things:
fickle & theoretical. Too many bugs
& I want a divorce.

Microaggression Bingo
[detail]

????/5
" We got sent home early and no one knew why.
I think we are at War!
I yelled to my sister napsacks ringing against our backs."
I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one. But I was pleasantly surprised by it.
Asghar's debut is raw, honest, emotional and powerful. These short poems cover so much. From violence, terrorism, hate and trauma, to sexuality, identity, ancestry, famiky, loss, coming of age and more.
Also this cover ?

🎧📚Definitely a must read. 4⭐️SCRIBD audio

I groaned out loud when I read Fatimah‘s “Microaggression Bingo”. I feel your pain girl.

#litsyatoz

An incredible and necessary read! I love finding new voices that are able to recreate poetry to tell their story.

Morning, littens! Just getting this great poetry book on your radar! How gorgeous is that cover!?

Current #BlameItOnLitsy read. I saw someone I follow post about it and it sounded amazing, and guess what IT IS. It's full of raw emotion. Poetry book by a Pakistani Muslim-American woman who talks about identity, race, trump's america, loss, and the Indian/Pakistani Partition. I know nothing about the partition; all I ever learned about South Asia in school was a teeny bit about the British occupation. Googling lots of things while reading

As a pacifist, this really hit #poetry

Wildly excited to read this #poetry collection

I don‘t really have words except go read this.

Microagression Bingo

I recommend asking your library to buy books. They take requests.

I saw this on Random House's Instagram today. Isn't it beautiful? I added this poetry collection to my "to read" list. I really need more poetry in my life!

i've discovered a love for personal poetry ... the kind of poetry that feels like you are reading someone's diary versus the cerebral musings of an individual (if that makes any sense). this is definitely a collection of intimate musings.

As beautiful on the inside as the outside.

Poems about Partition and its lifelong effects, growing up in America with brown skin, and more. Asghar dedicates specific poems to Nikki Giovanni, Danez Smith, and Safia Elhillo - all poets I adore and find her to be good company. (Poet is also the writer and co-creator of the web series Brown Girls, which I can highly recommend.) eARC from publisher, out nowish.

These poems explore so many themes, such as identity (personal, cultural, sexual, gender), community, the immigrant experience, belonging, experiencing microaggressions, and the far-reaching impact of colonialism, as well as the effect of 9/11 on Muslim Americans. This collection evokes emotion and shares stories. I love the variety of form and the cadence of these poems, but most especially, I love Asghar's voice.