Louder than Hearts

Nicol 222, Beirut campus and Block A 710-711, Byblos campus

The Department of English is hosting a poetry reading event by Lebanese poet Zeina Hashem Beck.

The prize-winning poet will read from her latest collection, Louder than Hearts. The book won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, and has been praised by esteemed poet Naomi Shihab Nye, who wrote, “Everything Arabic we treasure comes alive in these poems - readers will feel restored to so many homes, revived, amazed. Zeina Hashem Beck writes with a brilliant, absolutely essential voice.”

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her most recent collection, Louder than Hearts (2017), won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Her poem, “Maqam,” won Poetry Magazine’s 2017 Frederick Bock Prize. She’s also the author of two chapbooks: 3arabi Song, winner of the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was, a 2016 smith|doorstop Laureate’s Choice, selected by Carol Ann Duffy. Her first collection, To Live in Autumn, won the 2013 Backwaters Prize. Her work has won Best of the Net, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Forward Prize, and has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Ambit, and The Rialto, among others. She lives in Dubai, where she has founded and runs PUNCH, a poetry and open mic collective. She reads in the Middle East and internationally. Find her on www.zeinahashembeck.com.

The reading will be followed by a Q&A and a book signing.

All are welcome.