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"A debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice." - BOOKLIST "Elegant and playful . . . The poet invents new forms and updates classic ones." - Elle "[Fatimah] Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible." - The New Yorker NAMED ONE OF THE TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY* FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD an aunt teaches me how to tell an edible flower from a poisonous one. just in case, I hear her say, just in case. From a co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web seriesBrown Girlscomes an imaginative, soulful debut poetry that collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America. Orphaned as a child, Fatimah Asghar grapples with coming of age and navigating questions of sexuality and race without the guidance of a mother or father. These poems at once bear anguish, joy, vulnerability, and compassion, while also exploring the many facets of violence: how it persists within us, how it is inherited across generations, and how it manifests itself in our relationships. In experimental forms and language both lyrical and raw, Asghar seamlessly braids together marginalized peoples histories with her own understanding of identity, place, and belonging. Praise for If They Come for Us "In forms both traditional . . . and unorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Most vivid and revelatory are pieces such as Boy, whose perspicacious turns and irreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged textures of a childhood shadowed by loss." - The New Yorker "[Asghars] debut poetry collection cemented her status as one of the citys greatest present-day poets. . . . A stunning work of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poems - both personal and historical, both celebratory and aggrieved - are unquestionably powerful in a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud." - Chicago Review of Books "Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful." - Library Journal (starred review) Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW "An outstanding collection of poetry . . . wonderful play with form . . . These poems cover so much - identity, loss, brown girlhood, the complicated bonds of family, what home is when home is torn apart. Much to admire here. [I] will be thinking about these poems for a long time to come." - Roxane Gay "[Fatimah] Asghar presents a debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice. . . . Through simultaneously lyrical and frank poems like Kal, Ghareeb, and Halal, Asghar allows poignant contradictions to rise to the surface." - Booklist "In forms both traditional . . . and unorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Most vivid and revelatory are pieces such as Boy, whose perspicacious turns and irreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged textures of a childhood shadowed by loss." - The New Yorker "This summer, [Asghars] debut poetry collection cemented her status as one of the citys greatest present-day poets. . . . A stunning work of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poems - both personal and historical, both celebratory and aggrieved - are unquestionably powerful in a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud." - Chicago Review of Books "If They Come for Usis a searing search for self." - Electric Literature "If They Come for Usis a remarkable debut collection, and Asghars poetic voice strikes a singular note in several places. Not one of the 44 poems in it feels superfluous. Asghar may unapologetically rip the readers heart open, but she also sutures it with the utmost tenderness and care." - Live Mint "Every age has its poets who spring-load every line with the personal and political so that you know what it was to be fully alive in that time and place - or torn from it. Asghar provides this anguished specificity in her debut poetry collection, a meditation on identity, dislocation, and loss. . . . Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful." - Library Journal(starred review) "In this awe-inspiring debut, Asghar, writer of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls, explores the painful, sometimes psychologically debilitating journey of establishing her identity as a queer brown woman within the confines of white America. . . . Honest, personal, and intimate without being insular or myopic, Asghars collection reveals a sense of strength and hope found in identity and cultural history." - Publishers Weekly(starred review) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fatimah Asghar is a nationally touring poet, performer, educator, and writer. She is the writer of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series that highlights friendships between women of color. She is a member of Dark Noise and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. EXCERPT. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. For Peshawar december 16, 2014 Before attacking schools in Pakistan, the Taliban sends kafan, a white cloth that marks Muslim burials, as a form of psychological terror. From the moment our babies are born are we meant to lower them into the ground? To dress them in white? They send flowers before guns, thorns plucked from stem. Every year I manage to live on this earth I collect more questions than answers. In my dreams, the children are still alive at school. In my dreams they still



About the Author

Fatimah Asghar

Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. She is the author of the poetry collection and the chapbook . She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Her work has been featured on news outlets such as , and others.



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