Four Cities - Softcover

Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. Wandering from Detroit to Haifa, Tripoli to Brooklyn, the poems of FOUR CITIES reveal the underbelly of cities, bearing witness to narratives of love, occupation and faith. These testimonies are harvested from displaced landscapes, histories and languages, revealing the unsettled lives of immigrants. Using urgent, haunting language, Alyan evokes the unlikely backdrop of Palestinian bazaars and Midwestern junkyards, policed checkpoints and boisterous nightclubs. A Lebanese village burns while lovers kiss in Paris. A traveler unpacks her grief in the homes of strangers. This lyrical collection captures the interplay between adopted and imposed homes, the poignant legacy of exile.

Hala Alyan is a Palestinian-American poet and clinical psychologist whose work has appeared in several journals, including Copper Nickel, Third Coast, and The Journal. Her first full- length poetry collection, ATRIUM, was published by Three Rooms Press in New York City, and was awarded the 2013 Arab American Book Award in Poetry. She resides in Manhattan.