Curbside Press publishes Palestinian poetry

The Connecticut literary arts nonprofit Curbstone Press, whose mission statement involves "publishing creative literature that promotes human rights and inter-cultural understanding," specializing in "Latin American and Latino literature," has broadened its scope to release Rain Inside, a collection of poems by Palestinian writer Ibrahim Nasrallah.

The poems, translated by Omnia Amin and Rick London, capture life on the Gaza strip, often through surrealist and brutal imagery.

Two previous novels by Nasrallah have also been translated into English--Prairies of Fever and Inside the Night--though the majority of literature by him and his Arabic contemporaries remains unavailable in the Anglophone world.

Raymond Deane of the Electronic Intifada explores this dearth of Arabic translation and reviews the collection.

It is no accident that this sidelining has taken place in the Anglosphere, given the role of the US and UK in occupying Arab lands and propping up Israel. Imperialism/colonialism needs to demonize subject peoples as "uncivilized," a caricature that cannot be maintained without impeding access to those peoples' poetry. Providing such access is therefore a quietly subversive act.