"Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance," asserts Darwish. Both voice of the Palestinian people and one of the most transcendent poets of his generation, Mahmoud Darwish also wrote several remarkable volumes of autobiographical essays over the course of his life. First published in Beirut in 1973, these probing essays ask vital questions about the existentially complex realities the Palestinians in Israel face and the ambiguity of Darwish's own identity as an Israeli Palestinian. They call upon myth, memory, and language to delve into the poet's experience of house arrest, his encounters with Israeli interrogators, and the periods he spent in prison. Meditative, lyrical, rhythmic, Darwish gives absence a vital presence in these linked essays. Journal is a moving and intimate account of the loss of homeland and, for many, of life inside the porous walls of occupation––no ordinary grief.
Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008) was one of the most acclaimed poets in the Arab world. His twenty books of poetry include Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? A River Dies of Thirst, Mural, The Bed of the Stranger, and In the Presence of Absence (forthcoming from Archipelago Books). In 2001 Darwish was awarded the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize.
