{"product_id":"sheriff-sanam-humpb","title":"[10\/01\/26] Sheriff, Sanam: HUM","description":"\u003cp\u003eBackwaters Press, paperback\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublication Date: October 1, 2026\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher Marketing:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinner of the Backwaters Prize in Poetry\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe word \"hum\" in Urdu can mean both \"we\" and \"I.\" In English, it's a gesture of sound--a vibration. Sanam Sheriff's \u003ci\u003eHUM\u003c\/i\u003e is a trans call to the beauty of attempt rather than the clarity of arrival. This book seeks as the pilgrim seeks, wandering from a plural sense of self with a lyric attunement to the wound's power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing a queer, trans, Muslim speaker who grew up in southern India and migrated to the United States, Sheriff's debut collection invites us to listen: to how yearning for a country blurs with yearning for a beloved; to how exile, for queer and trans people, is where the body itself becomes a place of dignity and prayer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnriched by Urdu lyric traditions of love, and love mourned, \u003ci\u003eHUM\u003c\/i\u003e raises the queer erotic to the heavens, even as the grief of separation lingers as paradise lost. Here, Sheriff weaves together the two most potent threads of human life: pain and love, strummed until they sing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45195765973015,"sku":"9781496248022","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0004\/6497\/7956\/files\/81R6HuCUKlL._SL1500.jpg?v=1781220521","url":"https:\/\/open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com\/products\/sheriff-sanam-humpb","provider":"Open Books: A Poem Emporium","version":"1.0","type":"link"}