Amirah Al Wassif's latest English-language collection of poetry explores how women must cope in a culture that suppresses everything in them, even their curiosity. Her words fearlessly display and challenge the impact that the repressive male attitude has on women in the Muslim culture.
Amirah Al Wassif’s poetry comes from a place that is both deeply personal and universal, because she is the curious girl who has to question everything in her everyday life just to retain her own identity.
As Amirah Al Wassif puts it, she was that little girl who used to play hide and seek with her writing ghosts, although the male world used to introduce her as a poor woman who had no right to express herself, she decided to sing out the hidden truth about many women who are deprived of liberty around the world.
"I wrote this collection of poems for Catherine, Adel, Christine, Elizabeth, Kristina, Aisha, Zainab and Rachel. For all those who were trapped and who were insulted and who were treated like dolls. I wrote this poetry collection for all of you."
How to Bury a Curious Girl is a forbidden song that shivers inside every woman's chest and will resonate with all women from every culture and background.
GusGus Press
104 pp. ● 6x9
$13.95 (pb) ● $9.99 (eb)
ISBN 978-1-949290-81-3 (pb)
POETRY / Middle Eastern
POETRY / Women Authors
POETRY / African
Publication date: April 5, 2022
Amirah Al Wassif is a freelance writer based in Egypt. Her prolific output includes general interest articles, novels, short stories, songs, and of course, poetry. Five of her books have been written in Arabic and much of her English work has appeared in a great many cultural magazines. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Kurdish, Hindi and Arabic.
Amirah Al Wassif’s poems have appeared in several print and online publications including South Florida Poetry, Birmingham Arts Journal, Hawaii Review, The Meniscus, The Chiron Review, The Hunger, Writers Resist, Right Now, and others. Amirah also has a poetry collection, For Those Who Don’t Know Chocolate (Poetic Justice Books & Arts, 2019), and a children’s book, The Cocoa Boy and Other Stories published in February 2020.