Name: why an author writes to a guy holding a fish
SKU: WAAW202204
Availability: InStock

why an author writes to a guy holding a fish

APR. 2022

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Author: Laila Halaby Print Edition: ISBN: 978-1-7374465-3-8 Product Details: 5 x 8; 156 pp. LCCN: 2021915314 eBook Edition: ISBN: 978-1-7374465-5-2 REVIEWS: 2LP BOOK REVIEWS SKU: WAAW202204 Categories: Narrative Nonfiction, Poetry Tag: Arab American

Meet The Author

Laila Halaby

This 2LP author has only one title with 2Leaf Press.

WHY AN AUTHOR WRITES TO A GUY HOLDING A FISH is Laila Halaby’s second collection of poetry. A story in verse, it is an honest, sensual, often funny series of narrative poems that chronicle the author’s walk out on her two-decade long relationship with her Palestinian husband. Halaby suddenly finds herself in the world of American dating where she searches for idealized love and genuine connection. Always an “other” and having never dated a white man or an American before, WHY AN AUTHOR WRITES TO A GUY HOLDING A FISH is about misadventures abound including heartbreak amid misread cues and lost nuances. Halaby reassesses her role as a woman, a mother raising men, and a writer, and learns how to dispense with labels and imagined expectations. In the process, she becomes reacquainted with her womanhood and power. In WHY AN AUTHOR WRITES TO A GUY HOLDING A FISH, Halaby successfully connects readers, both male and female, with a collection of poetry that is something special.

Here's What People Are Saying

“If the nation state is a scheme to shore up patriarchy and property rights, then I want no part of it. I want to live a life that would be welcomed in the country of women. In WHY AN AUTHOR WRITES TO A GUY HOLDING A FISH, Laila Halaby is not the border guard of that country, but she is one of its fierce and precious caretakers, denizens, and storytellers. Writing with clarity and compassion, she reminds us that the journey is made not in miles but in transformation — may I have her luck to accidentally swallow half a bee ‘to recognize the wings/ I’ve had all this time.’” ~Farid Matuk, Associate Professor at The University of Arizona, author of The Real Horse (2018) and My Daughter La Chola (2013)

“Love is not a noun; it is a verb. The best of Laila Halaby’s admirable collection of love poetry written after the loss of a long marriage, bears this difficult discovery. In WHY AN AUTHOR WRITES TO A GUY HOLDING A FISH, Halaby endures the sexual labyrinth of a culture that sells love as an object to possess or fall into. She has a knowing, sharp, humorous eye for the business-like sifting of computer dating (‘I am no longer interested in the position’). But finally, awash in inauthenticity, Halaby comes upon the real thing: ‘Land me gently/between the pages/of your life/not a bookmark . . . the ink itself.’” ~Gregory Orfalea, award-winning novelist, author of Journey to the Sun (2014) and The Man Who Guarded the Bomb (2010)