If They Come For Us: Poems, by Fatimah Asghar

Published August 7, 2018.

From a co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web seriesBrown Girlscomes an imaginative, soulful debut poetry that collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America.Orphaned as a child, Fatimah Asghar grapples with coming of age and navigating questions of sexuality and race without the guidance of a mother or father. These poems at once bear anguish, joy, vulnerability, and compassion, while also exploring the many facets of violence: how it persists within us, how it is inherited across generations, and how it manifests itself in our relationships. In experimental forms and language both lyrical and raw, Asghar seamlessly braids together marginalized peoples histories with her own understanding of identity, place, and belonging.

REVIEWS:

In forms bothtraditional . . . andunorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender,illuminatingthe forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Mostvividandrevelatoryare pieces such as Boy, whoseperspicacious turnsandirreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged texturesof a childhood shadowed by loss.The New Yorker

[Asghars] debut poetry collectioncemented her statusasone of the citys greatest present-day poets. . . . Astunningwork of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poemsbothpersonalandhistorical, both celebratoryandaggrievedareunquestionably powerfulin a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud.Chicago Review of Books

Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful.Library Journal(starred review)