Hair on Fire - (Calico) by Sarah Coolidge (Paperback)

About the Book

"Five female Afghan poets wield language to combat the loneliness, absurdity, and claustrophobia of life in a war-torn country and its diaspora"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Five female Afghan poets wield language to combat the loneliness, absurdity, and claustrophobia of life in a war-torn country and its diaspora. There are "hypnotic, long beards" tangled with mass extinctions; hateful men burning grapevines; black blindfolds; jinn in chadors; and condoms advertised every eight minutes on TV. Interspersing these are tender moments: one poet describes brushing her daughter's hair, while another imagines a tree growing at the center of a room, undisturbed by the bombs outside. In the wake of the Taliban's escalating war on Afghan women's rights, Hair on Fire is a blazing tribute to a group of exceptional poetesses and a reminder of what we lose when voices are silenced.

Review Quotes

"So much burns beautifully, powerfully, urgently in this book: poems of loss and grief, yes, but also of sarcasm and cybersex, of quiet and contradiction, of sunflowers and saliva..."--Sahar Muradi, author of OCTOBERS

"The astute and assured poems populating Hair on Fire are exemplary of women's capacity to excavate hope by wielding the future conditional. Writing in and from different domestic conditions and exilic modes, these five Afghan poets and their translators examine and question the very task of poetry: to reanimate language against imperial projects of effacement. Crystalline and clarifying, Hair on Fire is a feat of futurity: They will grow green, one day, / all these dreams / that we have buried in the breast of the earth.--Sarah Ghazal Ali, author of Theophanies

Praise for the Calico Series

"Strange in evocative and enticingly varied ways, these previously untranslated treasures are each a little pocket universe of the eerie and uncanny, places in which to get deliciously lost."--Alexandra Kleeman on Unusual Fragments, 20th Century Japanese Fiction

"[The Calico Series], with its eye-catching design and sparkling curation, is one of the best modes of discovery out there: pick one up, regardless of what you think you know about the contents, and you're bound to discover a whole new slice of the literary world--like, in this edition, Romanian poetry!"--Literary Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2024) on Cigarettes After Tomorrow, Romanian Poetry

"Unbelievably exciting...These are poems to read and reread, repeating the lines as though they were a secret between yourself and the page."--The Paris Review on Home: New Arabic Poems

"This eclectic bilingual anthology from queer Brazilian writers, both living and dead, is as expansive and full of life as the country itself...enticing and poignant."--Publishers Weekly on Cuíer: Queer Brazil

"Visible approaches translation as an act that occurs not only between languages but also between media and disciplines...Thoughtfully curated...Past and present come together in a refreshingly collaborative spirit."--Brooklyn Rail on Visible

"An absorbing sampler of the literary feast available in Africa's most widely spoken language, No Edges should leave readers eager to discover more Swahili writers."--Shailja Patel, author of Migritude, on No Edges