Contributors: Hanna Abi Akl, Zeina Abi Assy, Philipe AbiYouness, George Abraham, Sumayyah Abu-Hulayel, Tala Abu Rahmeh, Jessica Abughattas, Leena Aboutaleb, Rasha Alduwaisan, janan alexandra, Ahmad Almallah, Threa Almontaser, Hajer Almosleh, Alise Alousi, Sarah Alsaidi, Arwa Alsamarae, Omar Alsayyed, Zaina Alsous, Zaid Alwan, Hala Alyan, Farah Z. Aridi, Lara Atallah, Ruth Awad, Amanda Ghazale Aziz, Zeina Azzam, Dani Badra, Mariam Barghouti, Farah Chamma, Hayan Charara, Rabab Chamseddine, Leila Chatti, Nadim Choufi, Hiba Dagher, Diane DeCillis, Carolina Ebeid, Zein El-Amine, Ayah El-Fahmawi, Silvia El Helo, Sara Elkamel, Mohammed El-Kurd, Hazem Fahmy, Majda Gama, Mariam Gomaa, donia salem harhoor, Hedy Habra, Nathalie Handal, Zeina Hashem Beck, Eman Hassan, Noor Hindi, Nadia Ibrashi, Nusaiba Imady, Bashar Lulu Jabbour, Marlin M. Jenkins, Fady Joudah, Zeyn Joukhadar, Farah Kader, Mohja Kahf, Nour Kamel, Sara Khayat, Tariq Luthun, lisa minerva luxx, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Siwar Masannat, Dima Mikhayel Matta, Farid Matuk, Philip Metres, Belal Mobarak, Nawal Muradwij, Noor Naga, Hala Nasr, Naomi Shihab Nye, Aziza Okab, Rushda Rafeek, Jess Rizkallah, Yasmine Roukiaya, Sara Saab, Zein Sa’dedin, Omar Sabbagh, Lubna Safi, Theresa Sahyoun, Aiya Sakr, Omar Sakr, Glenn Shaheen, Deema K. Shehabi, Hind Shoufani, Fargo Tbakhi, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Nur Turkmani, Peter Twal, Sarah Uheida, & Rewa Zeinati

Available Now

We Call to the Eye & the Night
Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage

Edited by Hala Alyan & Zeina Hashem Beck

We Call to the Eye & the Night gathers almost two-hundred vibrant English-language love poems by contemporary writers of Arab descent, including eminent poets and those who have just begun to make their mark. With roots in diverse countries, they represent a breathtaking intersection of voices, experiences, and perspectives. Their poems divulge secret yearnings, discover the remarkable in the everyday, and conjure people and places that resonate after they are gone. Featured, of course, are evocative explorations of love and of the beloved; there are also poems of friendship and family, heritage and homeland, transporting us from city centers to the depths of the sea and to the stars above.

Exquisitely curated and introduced by acclaimed authors Hala Alyan and Zeina Hashem Beck, We Call to the Eye & the Night is at once sexy, sensuous, adventurous, nostalgic, and iconoclastic—a treasury of love emanating from the Arab world and its diaspora.

“In telling us what and how they love, these poets are telling us, in part, what is at stake.” — Asian American Writer’s Workshop, AAWW curated excerpts from the book here

“We Call to the Eye & the Night is an exciting new resource, granting access to a myriad of Arab writers writing in English today.” —Los Angeles Review of Books, full inverview with the ediors here

“The book does not attempt to survey living Arab writers, as past anthologies have done… Instead, Alyan and Hashem Beck have invited writers to an open celebration, a haflah or ’azumah, a place where they can be with other writers with whom they have this one thing in common, and to whom they don’t have to explain themselves… Where they can write about love, a supremely human and universal topic, however they want to.” — Eman Quotah, The Markaz Review

“[We Call to the Eye & the Night] gives the reader the sensation of gazing into a brilliant night sky, one that is both familiar and strange… Some of the stars are familiar… while others have risen to join them in new constellations.” -AL JADID

Hala Alyan is the author of two novels, including The Arsonists’ City, and four collections of poetry. She lives in Brooklyn where she works as a clinical psychologist.

Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her third poetry collection, O, was named a Best Book of 2022 by LitHub and the New York Public Library. She lives in the Bay Area.

Paperback / $22.00 (Can $29.00) / ISBN 978-0-89255-567-3 / 272 pages / Poetry Anthology