Customs
Published on 27. April 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
112 pages
978-1-5266-5529-5 (ISBN)
Description
Longlisted for the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
Longlisted for the 2022 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize
A New Yorker Essential Read of 2022
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022
An NPR Best Book of 2022
A Literary Hub Best Reviewed Poetry Collection of 2022
_______________
'Witty and incisive... [Sharif] masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief' New York Times
_______________
The devastating second collection by Solmaz Sharif, author of Look, a National Book Award finalist
With Customs, Solmaz Sharif offers a series of poetic refusals, weighing nuanced questions about what it means to belong to a place. In the face of hard borders these poems seek a reckoning with the structures, in society, in language itself, by which these limits act on us.
Sharif examines what it means to exist in the nowhere of the arrivals terminal; to navigate a continual series of checkpoints, officers, searches, and questionings that can become a relentless challenge; a mutating shibboleth.
Through the poet's adept balancing of tonal and formal elements, these poems interrogate the 'customs' of the nation-state, of the English language, of the paces these systems put us through. But this work is not enjoined to a hopeless quest. Instead, the propulsive force that informs each line, each white space, and punctuation mark, is a powerfully galvanizing and healing force.
Customs reminds us of the generative possibilities of restlessness, of seeking in each poem to refresh what it is a poem can be and do.
Longlisted for the 2022 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize
A New Yorker Essential Read of 2022
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022
An NPR Best Book of 2022
A Literary Hub Best Reviewed Poetry Collection of 2022
_______________
'Witty and incisive... [Sharif] masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief' New York Times
_______________
The devastating second collection by Solmaz Sharif, author of Look, a National Book Award finalist
With Customs, Solmaz Sharif offers a series of poetic refusals, weighing nuanced questions about what it means to belong to a place. In the face of hard borders these poems seek a reckoning with the structures, in society, in language itself, by which these limits act on us.
Sharif examines what it means to exist in the nowhere of the arrivals terminal; to navigate a continual series of checkpoints, officers, searches, and questionings that can become a relentless challenge; a mutating shibboleth.
Through the poet's adept balancing of tonal and formal elements, these poems interrogate the 'customs' of the nation-state, of the English language, of the paces these systems put us through. But this work is not enjoined to a hopeless quest. Instead, the propulsive force that informs each line, each white space, and punctuation mark, is a powerfully galvanizing and healing force.
Customs reminds us of the generative possibilities of restlessness, of seeking in each poem to refresh what it is a poem can be and do.
Reviews / Votes
Witty and incisive... [Sharif] masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief * New York Times * This collection, while shaking an elegant fist at "the wide hallways / of a great endowment", is a useful dispatch from within such rooms * GUARDIAN, Best recent poetry * Striking * BOOKSELLER * A thought provoking and enjoyable read * PULSAR POETRY * Sharif gives us a poetry (and a person) caught at the adjunct between two possibilities, the border at which ambiguity (that most faithful repository for poets through the ages) can be weaponised. But it is the beauty of Customs that, in standing at this boundary, we can catch the light beyond * THE ARTS DESK * I really love ... Solmaz Sharif's Customs. I love the book's precision and truthfulness and find I continue to turn to it for something like help -- R. O. Kwan * The Cut * Sharif masterfully blends, develops, and transforms her imagery throughout Customs in such a seamless and unexpected way that the reader effortlessly follows these gorgeous, golden, and intelligent threads all the way to the brink of epiphany and beyond * New York Review of Books * Rooted in unrootedness; migration, borders and displacement are all themes in Sharif's poems. This book asks us to consider how powerful language can be, and to use it carefully * NPR, Books We Love * As she masterfully traverses the landscape of exile and all its complicated grief, Sharif manages, with conviction and consistency, to make the reader feel welcome * New York Times Book Review * The ostensible clarity of borders and checkpoints gives way to a terrain of fundamental uncertainty, a geography of elusive thresholds * New Yorker, Best Books of 2022 * Dazzling . . . Sharif's language is spare and all the more sharp for what remains, for all that she has left out, as the sculptor does with a slab of marble. . . . This is poetry - this is a poet - that marvels us in manners minute and majestic -- Mandana Chaffa * Ploughshares * Sharif masterfully blends, develops, and transforms her imagery throughout Customs in such a seamless and unexpected way that the reader effortlessly follows these gorgeous, golden, and intelligent threads all the way to the brink of epiphany and beyond * New York Journal of Books * Blistering in its clear-sightedness, this collection offers a fierce, beautiful closing that dares to imagine 'a beckoning, a way.' A bold and uncompromising book with virtuosic emotional range; highly recommended * Library Journal, starred review * Sharif's commanding voice reverberates throughout this complex and confident collection * Publishers Weekly, starred review * Sharif demonstrates remarkable talent in her ability to so deftly portray the traumatizing balance required to live in the West with deep roots in Iran * Booklist, starred review * Spectacular . . . In a massive feat, Customs continues the work of Look, pushing its mission forward with a new slate of sharp, memorable pieces that are set to inspire yet another generation * Cleveland Review of Books * Sharif's ruminations on language in Customs - and how to keep it alive and potent - cement her position as one of the most thoughtful poets working today * Harvard Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions
Height: 191 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
121 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-5529-5 (9781526655295)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Person
Solmaz Sharif was raised by Iranian parents in the United States. Her first collection, Look, was a National Book Award finalist. She is currently the Shirley Shenker Assistant Professor of English at UC Berkeley.