Making Mirrors

Book excerpt: A poetry anthology that illuminates exile and displacement. Making Mirrors began on two continents, envisioned by Palestinian poet and aid worker, Jehan Bseiso, and Becky Thompson, a US-based poet changed by months of greeting refugees after their perilous journey across the Aegean Sea. This anthology uses mirrors to reflect imagistic connections that allow us to see ourselves in each other, those on rafts and those standing on the shore, those waiting/writing in detention and those writing from places of relative safety, those who lift their children to the sky and those whose bodies are at the bottom of the sea. Making Mirrors offers a poetics of belonging—to the earth, family, and memories packed into backpacks. The poems go beyond refugee/citizen binaries and illuminate exile as a forced/creative space. As the refugee crisis fades from the front page of newspapers, this collection is a plea against historical amnesia and inertia; the poems are an antidote that reaches beyond despair to renewed action. Contributors include: Abbas Sheikhi • Abu Bakr Khaal • Adele Ne Jame • Ahmad Almallah • Ahmed • Qaisania • Angela Farmer • Baha’ Budair • Becky Thompson • Bronwen Griffiths • Eman Abedelhadi • Fadwa Soleiman • Fady Joudah • Fatima Al Hassan • Fouad Mohammed Fouad • Gbenga Adesina • Golan Haji • Hajer Almosleh • Hayan Charara • Ibtisam Barakat • Jehan Bseiso • Jose A. Alcantara • Lena Khalaf Tuffaha • Lisa Suhair Majaj • Marilyn Hacker • Marisa Frasca • Merna Ann Hecht • Mohsen Emadi • Mootacem Bellah Mhiri • Naomi Shihab Nye • Nathalie Handal • Nawwar Kamal Al Hassani • Nisreen Aj • Nora Barghati • Omar Mousa Alsayyed • Rewa Zeinati • Ruth Awad • Saad Abdullah • Sanaa Shuaybe • Sara Abou Rashed • Sara Saleh • Sharif S. Elmusa • Sholeh Wolpé • Zeina Azzam • Zeina Hashem Beck • Zoe Holman Making Mirrors began on two continents, envisioned by Palestinian poet and aid worker, Jehan Bseiso, and Becky Thompson, a US-based poet changed by months of greeting refugees after their perilous journey across the Aegean Sea. This anthology uses mirrors to reflect imagistic connections that allow us to see ourselves in each other, those on rafts and those standing on the shore, those waiting/writing in detention and those writing from places of relative safety, those who lift their children to the sky and those whose bodies are at the bottom of the sea. Making Mirrors offers a poetics of belonging—to the earth, family, and memories packed into backpacks. The poems go beyond refugee/citizen binaries and illuminate exile as a forced/creative space. As the refugee crisis fades from the front page of newspapers, this collection is a plea against historical amnesia and inertia; the poems are an antidote that reaches beyond despair to renewed action. Contributors include: Abbas Sheikhi • Abu Bakr Khaal • Adele Ne Jame • Ahmad Almallah • Ahmed Qaisania • Angela Farmer • Baha’ Budair • Becky Thompson • Bronwen Griffiths • Eman Abedelhadi • Fadwa Soleiman • Fady Joudah • Fatima Al Hassan • Fouad Mohammed Fouad • Gbenga Adesina • Golan Haji • Hajer Almosleh • Hayan Charara • Ibtisam Barakat • Jehan Bseiso • Jose A. Alcantara • Lena Khalaf Tuffaha • Lisa Suhair Majaj • Marilyn Hacker • Marisa Frasca • Merna Ann Hecht • Mohsen Emadi • Mootacem Bellah Mhiri • Naomi Shihab Nye • Nathalie Handal • Nawwar Kamal Al Hassani • Nisreen Aj • Nora Barghati • Omar Mousa Alsayyed • Rewa Zeinati • Ruth Awad • Saad Abdullah • Sanaa Shuaybe • Sara Abou Rashed • Sara Saleh • Sharif S. Elmusa • Sholeh Wolpé • Zeina Azzam • Zeina Hashem Beck • Zoe Holman