A CONCORDANCE OF LEAVES by Philip Metres

Philip Metres has written a number of books, most recently the chapbook, abu ghraib arias (Flying Guillotine, 2011), winner of the 2012 Arab American Book Award, and To See the Earth (Cleveland State, 2008). His work has appeared in Best American Poetry and many other journals and anthologies. He is the recipient of two NEA fellowships, a Watson Fellowship, four Ohio Arts Council Grants, the Anne Halley Prize, the Arab American Book Award, and the Cleveland Arts Prize. He teaches literature and creative writing at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.  

http://www.philipmetres.com

 

“Philip Metres has created a miracle—a tender book so transporting it carries us deeply into the soul of Palestine as well as the love of a family—mysteries and blessings of language and haunted details—each tiny turn as huge as history and the next precious page of days.”

—Naomi Shihab Nye

 

“A Concordance of Leaves is an epic poem of the indomitable yet fragile human spirit.  Philip Metres brings Palestine and Palestinians into English with rare luminosity.   One feels echoes of Oppen’s succinct tenderness in the depiction of the numerous characters of this work.  Without other, there is no self. And that other is the stranger who must be loved.  Concordance is, after all, a wedding poem—leaves and pages in search of a certain passage toward harmony.”  
—Fady Joudah

 

Reviews

 

• “Review | A Concordance of Leaves, by Philip Metres.” Emilia Phillips. Blackbird, vol. 13, no. 1, 2014.

 

• “Review of A Concordance of Leaves by Philip Metres.” Greg Weiss. The Journal: a Literary Magazine, vol. 37, no. 4, 2013.

 

Features

 

• Prashad, Vijay, editor. Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation. Verso, 2015.

 

• "An Excerpt from A Concordance of Leaves." Poetry Daily, 2013

 

Awards

 

• 2014 Arab American Book Award George Ellenbogen Poetry Winner