The Wild Fox of Yemen: Poems (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781644450505)

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Poetry

Winner of the Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets, selected by Harryette Mullen

By turns aggressively reckless and fiercely protective, always guided by faith and ancestry, Threa Almontaser's incendiary debut asks how mistranslation can be a form of self-knowledge and survival. A love letter to the country and people of Yemen, a portrait of young Muslim womanhood in New York after 9/11, and an extraordinarily composed examination of what it means to carry in the body the echoes of what came before, Almontaser's polyvocal collection sneaks artifacts to and from worlds, repurposing language and adapting to the space between cultures. Half-crunk and hungry, speakers move with the force of what cannot be contained by the limits of the American imagination, and instead invest in troublemaking and trickery, navigate imperial violence across multiple accents and anthems, and apply gang signs in henna, utilizing any means necessary to form a semblance of home. In doing so, The Wild Fox of Yemen fearlessly rides the tension between carnality and tenderness in the unruly human spirit.

Author: Threa Almontaser
ISBN-10: 164445050X
ISBN-13: 9781644450505
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Language: English
Published: 04/06/2021
Pages: 96
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.45lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.90w x 0.40d
Award: National Book Awards - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 02/01/2021 pg. 86