IN 2007 Louise Glück selected Fady Joudah as the winner of the distinguished Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. In a foreword to his debut poetry collection, The Earth in the Attic, she called Joudah a “lyric poet in whom circumstance and profession ...have compelled obsession with large social contexts and grave national dilemmas.” Since then, Joudah has published five more collections of poetry, won numerous awards, and translated several volumes of poetry by Palestinian writers, among them Mahmoud Darwish, perhaps the best-known Palestinian poet in the English-speaking world.
Born in Texas to parents of the Palestinian diaspora, Joudah spent his early life in Libya and Saudi Arabia before returning to the United States to complete medical training. He now lives in Houston, where he works as an internal medicine physician while continuing to publish poetry. In a recent conversation, Boston Review spoke with Joudah about his forthcoming collection, [...], which will be published by Milkweed Editions in March.
BR: Your new book appears at a moment of unprecedented devastation in Gaza. Can you tell us about the circumstances of its composition? What was it like to write this book—and at this moment?