Hazem Fahmy's chapbook Red//Jild//Prayer (2018) is the Book of the Week at The Bridge.
I'll tell them to open up
a lens and go wild. Desert sandstorm
or Mediterranean wrath. Behold a screen
of undoing, every pixel a radical act
of color, watch each one dance for us
and no one else.
I want a biopic of Omar Sharif,
as post-colonial Arab prince, starring
Khaled Abul Naga. I want Rami Malek
reciting Rumi in close-up, a crisp contrast
to everything that's been said of our tongues.
I want my name said right, for once.
from "Ode to Essos" in Red//Jild//Prayer featured on The Bridge
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Red//Jild//Prayer is a meditation on the trauma and triumph of diaspora; an
interrogation of the various ways through which we make sense of our separation
from the homeland.
Hazem Fahmy is a Pushcart-nominated poet and critic from Cairo. He is currently pursuing his MA in Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. His debut chapbook, Red//Jild//Prayer won the 2017 Diode Editions Contest. A Kundiman and Watering Hole Fellow, his poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming in Apogee, AAWW, the Boston Review and The Offing. His performances have been featured on Button Poetry and Write About Now. He is a reader for the Shade Journal, and a contributing writer to Film Inquiry.
