City Lights Publishers
Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, scholar, and librarian who was born in Gaza and has spent his life there. He is the founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza's first English-language library.Things You May Find Hidden in My Earis his debut book of poems. The collection won an American Book Award, a 2022 Palestine Book Award and was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, as well as the2022 Walcott Poetry Prize.
In 2019-2020, Abu Toha was a Visiting Poet in the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard University.
Abu Toha is a columnist for Arrowsmith Press, and his writings from Gaza have also appeared inThe NationandLiterary Hub. His poems have been published inPoetry,The Nation, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day,Poetry Daily, and theNew York Review of Books, among others.
Winner of the American Book Award, the Palestine Book
Award and Arrowsmith Press's 2023 Derek Walcott Poetry
PrizeNational Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry FinalistPraise
for Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear and Mosab Abu
Toha:"Written from his native Gaza, Abu Toha’s accomplished debut
contrasts scenes of political violence with natural beauty: In one
poem, a 'nightingale departs the wet earth' two stanzas before the
'sound of a drone / intrudes.'"—The New York Times"Toha’s
meticulous, and often brief, lines thread his own breathing witness
into a poetry of mighty resolve, insisting poetry itself be worthy
of a Palestinian lament….So haunting, so searing, and above all, so
lit by Mosab Abu Toha’s vibrant—what else to call
it?—love.”—Canisia Lubrin, Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry
Judge
"Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is almost uniformly
uninterested in palatability. This is not to say that the poems are
not enjoyable, because they are, but it isn’t because they take
their base materials of agony, fatigue, fear, pellucid images, and
the occasional twist of wit and try to alchemize them into false
hope or squeeze them into anodyne platitudes. There is an
unwaveringness in the poems’ tone, and in their sequencing. One
after the other, they recount—with occasional wryness, rarely
varying flatness—daily experiences of bombs, tanks, death, power
cuts, loss, and fear."—Conor Bracken, Cleveland Review of Books
"Like poets he admires, Abu Toha attempts to find beauty around
him, however fleeting, and he also takes the reader on
philosophical explorations of his reality. The poems don’t just
explore the physical experience of the conflict but also what isn’t
there because of generations of conflict. Not only does he
contemplate the lives lost in Gaza but also the lost experiences:
not being able to grow up in family homes, not having a grave of a
loved one to visit, or, for Abu Toha specifically, not being able
to go on adventures in the city of Jaffa that was lost to his
grandparents who fled their home to Gaza."—World Literature
Today"There is a duality to the poems, a contrast of beauty and
violence. Images of dust, concrete, and gunfire tell a story of
growing up under siege. These same elements will stay with the
reader for days. The book is very visual both in language and in
photographs that make the lines hit even harder. Some of the forms
and line breaks feel loose, but they are made with passion and
striking details."—Booklist"The sensational young Palestinian poet
Mosab Abu Toha deftly harnesses the raw power of words and imagery
to expose the cruel and often absurd realities of sustaining life
in a city under siege. Abu Toha, who reflects on his family's
prolonged statelessness, is a literary warrior for whom crafting
poetry is an act of resistance against the occupying power. … His
debut poetry collection offers emotionally frank vignettes as well
as an extended interview conducted by Ammiel Alcalay. The poetry
cracks open a window to the stark realities of life for Gaza's
struggling residents, with Abu Toha serving as a gentle yet
insistent messenger who whispers: 'Look, see our wounds, they are
real.'"—Shelf Awareness, starred review"With this breakthrough
debut collection, Mosab Abu Toha joins an extraordinary group of
poets, intellectuals, and writers who have given voice to the
resilience of the Palestinian people and their continued fight for
justice while facing violent and inhuman conditions under Israel's
continued military occupation … Things You May Find Hidden in My
Ear resists erasure and forgetting to imagine a future for
Palestine: it is the 'rose … among the ruins of the house,' an
image of survival that beckons the eternal return of beauty and
justice."—Banipal Magazine"Mosab Abu Toha's poems are short,
accessible, visceral, and beautiful. 'Palestine A-Z' cries out for
use in the classroom. Students will also be interested in the
interview with Abu Toha at the end of the book. He talks about his
childhood, what led him to poetry, and the context for some of the
poems."—Rethinking Schools"The proximity of death is palpable in
Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha’s devastating debut collection …
But even in the face of interminable violence, there’s an ironic
distancing at work … An 'interlude' includes a series of
photographs and accompanying captions. One depicts a schoolyard
filled with children, and below it the words 'Mid-Term Test' are
followed by a question: 'When a drone follows you on your way to
school, what is it doing[?]' A range of possible answers are
offered in multiple-choice format, including: 'It’s counting your
steps to make sure you’re getting your daily exercise.' Such
subdued humor filters through many of the poems in this collection,
and the book closes on a hopeful note."—Diego Baez, Harriet Books,
Poetry Foundation"The Gaza of Mosab Abu Toha’s childhood is a land
of tortured ambiguities, a precarious, uncertain place where 'you
don’t know what you’re guilty of,' where 'breathing is a task' and
'smiling is performing / plastic surgery,' as he writes in two
poems from Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights). Yet
Palestine is also a land of poetry, of Mahmoud Darwish and Tawfiq
Ziad. Abu Toha has now slipped seamlessly into that mantle, and
this first collection announces his arrival at the helm of a new
generation of Palestinian poets."—Jacob Appel, National Book
Critics Circle Awards
"Reading the poems of Mosab Abu Toha is a breath-taking experience.
Published by the prestigious City Lights Books, his poetry provides
an important insider perspective on life in Gaza. From its
surrealistic title to the interview with the poet that concludes
the book there is much to discover and appreciate in this
volume."—Jonathan Harrington, Beltway Poetry Quarterly
"Takes the reader on a turbulent journey of emotion with a series
of gradual realizations where Palestinians come to terms with
identity, memory and loss."—The New Arab"Abu Toha takes readers on
a journey, from the moment he began writing poetry in the midst of
an Israeli offensive on Gaza in 2014. His collection of poems
feature stories about poverty in Gaza, life under the siege,
unemployment, and tales of bombs, on almost every page. This of
course is no coincidence, as Abu Toha’s poetry was born in the
midst of the 2014 war."—Mondoweiss"Mosab Abu Toha is neither a
journalist nor a historian, but simply a young man whose four
grandparents were forcibly removed from their homes in 1948, whose
parents were born in refugee camps, and who himself was born in a
refugee camp called Al-Shati in 1992. He is married, and the father
of three young children. These poems, written in English, are
alternately sweet, bitter-sweet, angry, bewildered, and
heart-breaking."—Hollywood Progressive"Things You May Find Hidden
in My Ear is an account of what is lost in war, and what is
preserved, both tangible and intangible. Abu Toha writes of his
life under attack and threat of attack in Gaza, chronicling both
the devastation of being hunted in your own homeland and the small
pockets of grace found amongst the ruins. It is these scraps of a
different, possible life that become the inheritance of those from
whom all else has been taken. … a startling collection rising up
from the ruins of human hatred, reaching for the sun through
drifting smoke."—David Nilsen, On the Seawall"This may be one of
the finest poetry books of this year. … It is a complex book about
a complex world, born from a contentious war that has lasted three
generations, told by a youthful voice that has known nothing but. …
It is a book rife with death yet painted in every corner with an
almost unbearable amount of life."—New York Journal of Books"Mosab
Abu Toha is an astonishingly gifted young poet from Gaza, almost a
seer with his eloquent lyrical vernacular, his visions of life,
continuity, time, possibility, and beauty. His poems break my heart
and awaken it, at the same time. I feel I have been waiting for his
work all my life."—Naomi Shihab Nye, author of The Tiny
Journalist"Mosab Abu Toha's elegant and unforgettable poetry calls
me to celebrate the struggle to survive. Though forged in the bleak
landscape of Gaza, he conjures a radiance that echoes Miłosz and
Kabir. These poems are like flowers that grow out of bomb craters
and Mosab Abu Toha is an astonishing talent to celebrate."—Mary
Karr, author of Tropic of Squalor"Mosab Abu Toha's Things You May
Find Hidden in My Ear arrives with such refreshing clarity and
voice amidst a sea of immobilizing self-consciousness. It is no
great feat to say a complicated thing in a complicated way, but
here is a poet who says it plain: 'In Gaza, some of us cannot
completely die.' Later, 'This is how we survived.' It’s remarkable.
This is poetry of the highest order."—Kaveh Akbar, author of
Pilgrim Bell"It has been amazing, and inspiring, to see how people
surviving in the Gaza prison, subject to constant and vicious
attack and living under conditions of brutal deprivation, continue
to maintain their dignity and commitment to a better life. Mosab
Abu Toha’s initiative to create a library and cultural center in
Gaza is an outstanding example of these remarkable efforts. What he
is seeking to achieve would make a very significant contribution to
enriching the lives of Gazans and providing them with opportunities
for a much better future. It merits strong support from everyone
concerned with justice and basic human rights."—Noam Chomsky on the
Edward Said Public Library founded by Mosab Abu Toha“This is a
debut collection by Mosab Abu Toha and it’s magnificent. The last
book I read before reading this collection was Bittersweet by Susan
Cain—a book about how not only is hardship inevitable, it often
leads to amazing creative offerings. This couldn’t have been a
better prelude to reading Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear. I’d
be hard-pressed to tell you if the most common word in the
collection is bomb or shrapnel or F-16s. The author has drawn on
his childhood in Gaza for the material of this collection. With
that heartbreaking material, an incredible and beautiful creative
offering has risen from its ashes.”—Jennifer Willis Geraedts,
Beagle and Wolf Books & Bindery, Park Rapids, MN"In his searing and
unflinching debut, Mosab Abu Toha writes of his beloved Gaza and
the torments it continues to endure. These poems speak with
palpable urgency. Nevertheless underneath the terror, there’s a
lingering sense of optimism and survival: 'Through it all, the
strawberries have never stopped growing.'"—James Fraser, Grolier
Poetry Book Shop, Cambridge, MA"In a world that is being destroyed
by forces that seem too big to fight, Mosab Abu Toha's poems show
us the disappearing beauty of his homeland and the human cost of
our apathy and passivity in the wake of our government's violence.
May these delicate and powerful poems stir your heart and drive you
to action."—Mandy Medley, Pilsen Community Books, Chicago, IL"'We
deserve a better death,' begins one of Mosab Abu Toha's poems
halfway through his remarkable collection, one that both honors the
tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died since the 1940s,
strangers in their own homeland; and celebrates the ways in which
Palestinians today affirm their pasts, their presents, and their
futures in the face of daily terror. The movement across the poems,
fluid and urgent, brings a spectrum of Palestinian experiences and
voices to life, filtered through Toha's incandescent voice. 'Why is
it when I dream of Palestine, / that I see it in black and white?'
he asks in 'Notebooks,' but for the reader, Palestine, in all its
brutal occupation and its determination to survive, shines in
awesome color."—Anna Claire Weber, White Whale Bookstore,
Pittsburgh, PA
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