An electrifying debut collection exploring language and revolution, by an extraordinary new poetic talent
'Essential reading' Poetry Book Society Review
'Safa Khatib’s poems open my eyes, sharpen my ears' SAFIA ELHILLO
'With a meditative clarity, Khatib calls us to account for the ways we have – and continue to – turn eyes away from the historic now' NIKI HERD
An electrifying debut collection exploring language and revolution, by an extraordinary new poetic talent
Woven from threads of Aramaic, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Sumerian and Arabic, A Dress of Locusts is an unforgettable song cycle in which the living and dead sing back and forth to one another. Here, Safa Khatib journeys across the possibilities of language and self, asking us to dwell in the thresholds between the 'old' and the 'new'.
"Composed with bold, economical precision, Khatib’s debut comprises a blend of dream, riddle, parable, and prophecy. The book’s title is spoken by Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. This is, incredibly, an apt punctum for the book’s meditations on desire, faith, and ancient continuities between the so-called “West” and “(Middle) East”. Khatib’s wildly ambitious imagination collapses those divisions and defies contemporary geopolitical premises. The book’s idiosyncratic spirituality and vision are matched by its delightful, playful earthiness. Essential reading" - Poetry Book Society (Summer Bulletin)
