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    This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty

    40 Sonnets

    Part of Penguin Poets

    Author Zeina Hashem Beck
    Ebook
    Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
    On sale Mar 02, 2027 | 112 Pages | 9780593513255
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    From the “undeniable, unforgettable” (Kaveh Akbar) Zeina Hashem Beck, a profound new collection of palindromic sonnets that explore the division and correspondence between selves and alternate realities experienced in exile

    In This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, Zeina Hashem Beck once again reinvents the sonnet—this time not as a Shakespearean love poem or a Petrarchan ode, but as a post-colonial vehicle of the immigrant experience. Her chosen form, the palindromic sonnet, bends language to resist the concept of a singular reality, of one world; because for many immigrants, there exist multiple realities: the world where they now live, and the world they left behind. Beck connects these experiences of trial and upheaval with her own move from Lebanon to California, but also with the reinvention of the body in middle age, with motherhood, and with the transformative power of love. From cinema to sea turtles, from San Francisco to Beirut, this collection calls out a world that doesn’t make space for multiple realities, and yet simultaneously creates a world within itself which makes that existence possible.
    © Adonis Bdaywi
    Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet and the author of two previous full-length collections of poetry: Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing, 2017) and To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press, 2014), as well as two chapbooks: 3arabi Song (Rattle, 2016) and There Was and How Much There Was (smith|doorstop, 2016). Educated in Arabic, English, and French, Zeina has a BA and an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut. Her poem “Maqam” won Poetry’s 2017 Frederick Bock Prize, and her work appeared in The New York Times, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere. Zeina is the co-creator and co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast about Arabic poetry produced by Sowt. She recently moved to California with her husband and two daughters. View titles by Zeina Hashem Beck

    About

    From the “undeniable, unforgettable” (Kaveh Akbar) Zeina Hashem Beck, a profound new collection of palindromic sonnets that explore the division and correspondence between selves and alternate realities experienced in exile

    In This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, Zeina Hashem Beck once again reinvents the sonnet—this time not as a Shakespearean love poem or a Petrarchan ode, but as a post-colonial vehicle of the immigrant experience. Her chosen form, the palindromic sonnet, bends language to resist the concept of a singular reality, of one world; because for many immigrants, there exist multiple realities: the world where they now live, and the world they left behind. Beck connects these experiences of trial and upheaval with her own move from Lebanon to California, but also with the reinvention of the body in middle age, with motherhood, and with the transformative power of love. From cinema to sea turtles, from San Francisco to Beirut, this collection calls out a world that doesn’t make space for multiple realities, and yet simultaneously creates a world within itself which makes that existence possible.

    Author

    © Adonis Bdaywi
    Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet and the author of two previous full-length collections of poetry: Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing, 2017) and To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press, 2014), as well as two chapbooks: 3arabi Song (Rattle, 2016) and There Was and How Much There Was (smith|doorstop, 2016). Educated in Arabic, English, and French, Zeina has a BA and an MA in English Literature from the American University of Beirut. Her poem “Maqam” won Poetry’s 2017 Frederick Bock Prize, and her work appeared in The New York Times, Ploughshares, Poetry, and elsewhere. Zeina is the co-creator and co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast about Arabic poetry produced by Sowt. She recently moved to California with her husband and two daughters. View titles by Zeina Hashem Beck

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