The Raven, The Bayou, & The Willow by Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman
This collection takes you from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico. How do we keep faith with the divine when it is not tangible? The collection encompasses the history, nature, mythology, and identities of these spaces and how to find childhood living on the bayou. A mixed girl struggling with culture, religion, identity, and the growing hostility of alt-right conservatism. Through images drowned in memories and narrative, these sections explore being Arab, being American, Muslim, generational trauma, mixed parenthood, fairy tales, music, family, patriarchy, the failed american dream, and the pandemic. They ask us to re-examine what it means to be an American, how do we grapple with capitalism and imperialism? Especially when you are split, both a child of the colonized and the colonizer. How do we move forward when grief fills your throat and leaves the words dry on your tongue? How does trauma cling to the body and the mind? How does the world see these traumas when they grip each word off your tongue? How does nature heal all wounds when the ground rots beneath our feet? This collection does not hold answers, but questions, longing, defeat, and hope. It asks, how do we go on?
Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman (she/her) is a bi-racial Muslim, Iraqi, writer, historian, poet, and artist from Houston, TX. She is a Brooklyn Poets Fellow (2020), a Rad(ical) Poetry Fellow (2020), and a poet for the Houston Grand Opera & MFAH’s event “The Art of Intimacy.” (2019) She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net anthology (2021). She is published in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction across the world. She currently lives in Faulkner-land with her partner and enjoys the open land and the trees.