Home Is Not a Country: A Stuffie Story

Author: Elhillo, Safia

Brand: Make Me a World

Color: Black

Binding: hardcover

Number Of Pages: 215

Release Date: 02-03-2021

Part Number: part_0593177053

Details: Product Description
“Nothing short of magic. One of the best writers of our times.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X The powerful novel-in-verse from Safia Elhillo, the critically acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list. This mesmerizing journey of family, identity, and finding yourself in the most unexpected places is filled with lyrical beauty and stunning strength.

Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to belong somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn’t.
 
As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry. And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else’s . . . she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had.
 
Review
“
Movingly unravels themes of belonging, Islamophobia, and the interlocking oppressions thrust upon immigrant women.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“
[A] surreal crash-course in perspective, agency, and self-love.”
—Booklist, starred review

“Artfully profound and
achingly beautiful, Elhillo’s verse
aptly explores diasporic yearning for one’s home and a universal fascination with possibilities.” 
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Elhillo's 
tender and descriptive writing may leave readers feeling the need to live life to the fullest…[a] 
passionate, piercing YA collection of poems."––
Shelf Awareness, starred review 

“A love letter to anyone who has ever been an outsider, or searched to understand their history, no matter where they come from.” --
NPR




About the Author
Safia Elhillo is the author of the poetry collection
The January Children, which received the the 2016 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and a 2018 Arab American Book Award.

Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, she holds an MFA from The New School, a Cave Canem Fellowship, and a 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Safia is a Pushcart Prize nominee, co-winner of the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and listed in Forbes Africa's 2018 "30 Under 30." She is a 2019-2021 Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Airport 
once when i was small  we packed a shared suitcase
of bright cotton  floral prints  & something yellow 
& silken i’d never seen my mother wear 
& for the trip across the country she wore perfume 
& her best red beaded scarf  & we clattered 
into the terminal  my mother  collecting all the light 
a wedding on another coast  its promises 
of sunlight & gold  & her scattered schoolmates 
& cousins & faraway friends  all crowded 
into a rented hall  making it  with color 
& incense & song  our country 
& it all shone in my mother’s face
  
we approached the counter to check in  the family 
ahead of ours handed their boarding passes with a grin 
before the agent turned to us & his smile clicked shut 
said  check-in is closed  & no 
there is nothing he can do 
& no there is no manager to call & please can we leave 
this counter is now closed
  
my mother’s faltering voice  the soft music in her english 
her welling eyes  her wilting face  her beaded scarf 
& all she said was please  please  i have a ticket 
& i’d never seen her so small  english fleeing her mouth 
& leaving her faltering  frozen  reaching for words 
that would not come  dabbing at her eyes 
with the scarf  its red so bright  so festive 
like it was mocking us
 
& all i could do was reach  for the suitcase with one hand 
her limp arm with the other  & wh

EAN: 9780593177051

Package Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches

Languages: English