From: Fort Point Theatre Project
Fall 2024
Write So I can Hear You
featuring poets Dunya Mikhail and Jennifer Jean.
October 9, 7pm Salem Athenaeum.
Free and open to the public.
Coming in 2025 & 2026:
Poetry Books from HER STORY IS & Our Partners
2025: Where Do You Live? تعيش؟
Cowritten and Co-translated by Jennifer Jean, Dr. Hanaa Ahmed, and Wadaq Qais.
Forthcoming from Arrowsmith Press
As part of the Arrowsmith Press Featured Poet Series, Jennifer Jean described the history and process that led to this forthcoming book:
“Dr. Hanaa Ahmed and I are both members of the HER STORY IS collective, a group of Iraqi and American artists who promote projects that expand linguistic, artistic, and cultural boundaries in response to global conflict, with a focus on centralizing the experience of women. For a long time, we were the only two in the group whose primary art was poetry. We wanted to know each other, but, after three years of kind notes and news of publications and prizes, we didn’t really know each other.
“In 2020, we decided to communicate more purposefully, to write ‘poem responses’ to each other’s lives and work as a way of answering the question: ‘Where do you live?’ We didn’t only mean where we lived geographically, but also where we lived in regards to our moods, obsessions, regrets, tragedies, delights, etcetera. We stepped up our communications via Zoom, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger and shared as much as our hearts would allow.
“Hanaa told me, ‘I was born in the war. I grew in the war. I’m still in the war.’ I told her my father was absent my whole life because he suffered PTSD and schizophrenia as a result of his combat in the Vietnam War. She said she writes what she calls ‘prose poetry,’ which eschews classic Arabic forms for a more natural way of speaking. I said it sounds a lot like what I would call ‘free verse.’
“Through our co-translator Wadaq Qais, we spoke carefully and wrote figuratively. We also worked with Wadaq to co-translate each other’s poems. This co-translation process added another level of intimacy to our exchanges because we had to consider each other’s words more carefully than we would otherwise. We were required to consult an expert in each other’s language since both of us are mono-lingual. This has been a slow knowing! A quiet dance. We shared about how we compose and revise our poems, about how poets make themselves immortal.
“Hanaa once told me, ‘A poet’s life is fated.’ This is true. I believe our friendship is fated too. And, I know we both hope readers enjoy the poems in our forthcoming, collaborative collection Where Do You Live? أين تعيش؟ and that they feel a part of what has been a life-changing relationship.”
From the left: Jennifer Jean, Haana Ahmed, and Wadaq Qais
Dr. Hanaa Ahmed was born in Mosul, Iraq. She is a prize-winning poet and short story writer who has participated in critical conferences and international poetry festivals. She has a PhD in Arabic Literature. Her books include the poetry collections My Sorrow’s Reward from His Collar and Zahr (Flowers), as well as two books of criticism: The Dialectic of Poetry and Prose in Modernist Poetry, and The Poetics of the Prose Poem. Additionally, she’s released a children's book: Sultan and Shanidar. Hanaa teaches at the University of Mosul.
Wadaq Qais was born in Basra, Iraq. She received a degree in accounting in 2021. Later, she found her true calling in the Translation Department at the University of Basra, College of the Arts, where she is completing her studies. Reading provided her a gateway to other worlds, allowing her to broaden her perspective and expertise in the disciplines of both literary and business translation.
2026: Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Poetry by Iraqi Women
Poetry anthology edited by Jennifer Jean
With an introduction by Elham Al-Zabaidy, a founding Iraqi member of the HER STORY IS collective
Forthcoming from Tupelo Press
About HER STORY IS
HER STORY IS, a collective led by independent women writers and artists from the United States and Iraq, promotes projects aimed at expanding linguistic, artistic, and cultural boundaries in response to global conflict and its aftermath, with a focus on centralizing the experience of women.
HER STORY IS produces exhibitions, anthologies, scholarly articles, panel discussions, theater productions, and a semi-annual residency in the Middle East. We believe our process transforms established power structures, creates new grounds for learning, and builds a community of equals across borders. HER STORY IS is the latest in a series of collaborations and exchanges, begun in 2010 by playwright Amir Al Azraki and artist Anne Loyer, that have brought together artists and scholars from the United States, Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East.
In fall 2017, four U.S. women artists and four Iraqi women artists began communicating via Skype, email, and blogging about their art, their lives, and the relation of their art and lives to their countries and the world. The artists included Jennifer Jean, Anne Loyer, Amy Merrill, Hana’ Ahmed Mohammed, Mary Mohsen, Thaira Al Mayyahi, Lillie Paquette, and others. The workshop and exchanges were supported by the creative contributions and translation of scholar and writer Nadia Sekran, playwright Amir Al Azraki, and filmmaker Dina Fadil.
That December, seven of these artists and three translators met in Dubai, a location accessible to all. Over five days, each participant offered a workshop and told her personal story. At this face-to-face encounter among women from two countries divided by war and geography, the participants laughed and cried a lot. All felt that the face-to-face meetings and the experience of discovering common and divergent experiences, was an invaluable step in building new relationships as individuals and artists between two countries separated by war and geography.
After the artists and coordinators left Dubai, they reaffirmed their commitment to continuing the relationships and laying the groundwork for a series of collaborative projects in both countries. Since then, teams creating specific works have met regularly. Women artists in both countries have continued to participate via emails, Facebook posts, Skype and What’s App calls. They have prepared public exhibits and performances, undertaken new initiatives, and engaged in other projects growing out of the collaborative work.
Read a Summary of HER STORY IS Work
"Finding a Common Language: Iraqi and US Women Seek Reconciliation in Dubai," by Nadia Abdulridha Sakran AlEsi, graphic by Thaira al-Mayyahi, introduction by Amy Merrill, Journal of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies, Vol. 15, No. 3 (November 2019).
For more information, see arrowsmithpress.com