{"product_id":"mikhail-dunya-in-her-feminine-sign","title":"Mikhail, Dunya: In Her Feminine Sign","description":"\u003cp\u003eNew Directions\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: July 30, 2019\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Her Feminine Sign\u003c\/em\u003e follows on the heels of Dunya Mikhail's devastating account of Daesh kidnappings and killings of Yazidi women in Iraq, \u003cem\u003eThe Beekeeper.\u003c\/em\u003e It is the first book she has written in both Arabic and English, a process she talks about in her preface, saying \"The poet is at home in both texts, yet she remains a stranger.\" With a subtle simplicity and disquieting humor reminiscent of Wislawa Szymborska and an unadorned lyricism wholly her own, Mikhail shifts between her childhood in Baghdad and her present life in Detroit, between Ground Zero and a mass grave, between a game of chess and a flamingo. At the heart of the book is the symbol of the tied circle, the Arabic suffix \u003cem\u003etaa-marbuta\u003c\/em\u003e--a circle with two dots above it that determines a feminine word, or sign. This tied circle transforms into the moon, a stone that binds friendship, birdsong over ruins, three kidnapped women, and a hymn to Nisaba, the goddess of writing. A section of \"Iraqi haiku\" unfolds like Sumerian symbols carved onto clay tablets, transmuted into the stuff of our ordinary, daily life. In another poem, Mikhail defines the Sumerian word for freedom, \u003cem\u003eAma-ar-gi\u003c\/em\u003e, as \"what seeps out \/ from the dead into our dreams.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40523277303831,"sku":"9780811228763","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/products\/ibg.common.titledetail-1_7b891512-5738-4cfd-84d3-0e078fcb2867.gif?v=1678301570","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/mikhail-dunya-in-her-feminine-sign","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}