Muslim Melancholia

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. MUSLIM MELANCHOLIA constructs a narrative grounded in history and its hidden trajectories. The poems' use of historical fragments creates a recognizable collage of images, from present day immigrant enclaves to the appropriation of India's past and to America in the 1970s. Place is an integral part of these poems and the everyday experiences in these places constitute the given Muslim world in complex and perhaps contradictory ways. The poems are rooted in the meaning of these places--some inviting and others threatening--and how places are symbols reminding us of the common values that we share as well as our differences.

"Part palimpsest, part parable, Samina Hadi-Tabassum's MUSLIM MELANCHOLIA is a powerful collection exploring one family's inherited grief. In poems that are rich with history and emotion, we enter a narrative that startles and insists."--Thomas Dooley

"Samina Hadi-Tabassum's lyrical debut collection, MUSLIM MELANCHOLIA, illuminates a world both personal and global. From the mountains of Hyderabad to the graffitied parks of Chicago, these poems offer powerful witness to what it means to be a woman, a Muslim, an American."--Vandana Khanna

"In this engaging collection of remembrance and observation, MUSLIM MELANCHOLIA, Samina Hadi-Tabassum recalls a life of passage from her birthplace of Hyderabad to the urban landscape of America. Hadi-Tabassum paints with vivid colors and composes her poetic vignettes with a specificity and flamboyance that transforms and educates."--Jeffery Bahr