Transfer (American Poets Continuum)

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

811.54

Genres

Description

"In the current literary scene, one of the most heartening influences is the work of Naomi Shihab Nye. Her poems combine transcendent liveliness and sparkle along with warmth and human insight. She is a champion of the literature of encouragement and heart. Reading her work enhances life."-- William Stafford Dusk where is the name no one answered to gone off to live by itself beneath the pine trees separating the houses without a friend or a bed without a father to tell it stories how hard was the path it walked on all those years belonging to none of our struggles drifting under the calendar page elusive as residue when someone said how have you been it was strangely that name that tried to answer Naomi Shihab Nye has spent thirty-five years traveling the world to lead writing workshops and inspire students of all ages. In her newest collectionTransfer she draws on her Palestinian American heritage, the cultural diversity of her home in Texas, and her extensive travel experiences to create a poetry collection that attests to our shared humanity. Among her awards,Naomi Shihab Nye has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Witter Bynner Fellow. She has received a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and four Pushcart prizes. In January 2010, she was elected to the board of chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member feministgiles
Nye is such an eloquent writer. Each stanza is so carefully crafted and each word so delicately placed. I loved the rhythm of just about every poem I read, but will say I was less enthralled with the actual poems in part two "just call me aziz" than I was with the actual titles. This section of the
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book is compiled of poems written by Nye, but each title was written by her father. The titles were very interesting and really helped to give her father an identity without actually having to write a narrative about him. Overall, this collection really explores Nye's relationship with her father and her journey to finding her identity after his death. Teens who may have lost a parent will definitely relate to this book, as will Palestinian-Americans.
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LibraryThing member PlasticAtoms
4Q, 4Q.
(Why am I giving everything four stars? There needs to be more gradations here. Five is perfect and three is mediocre, so almost everything gets four by default. Anyway.)
Poems about (and some by) the author's father, a Palestinian displaced by Israeli occupation who later emigrated to the
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US. The horror of being driven from one's home is conveyed with passion and conviction, yet without demonizing the Israelis so much as painting them as actors in an ongoing tragedy of oppression and reprisal which has enveloped all cultures across human history ("We have suffered too much thanks to everyone, but you are the only ones we can touch"). The rather despairing tone of much of the book is leavened with bits of joys or meaning found in slices of life; a good book to demonstrate that cynics can be happy too, if we appreciate the small things.
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LibraryThing member anavb
5Q, 3.

Poems:
I don't Know
My life before America had no toilet tissue
I Hate it, I love it
Won't You Still Love Me When I'm Dead?
Love You Love You Love You

Many of the poems in this collection were written after the death of Naomi Shihab Nye's father. I've read some of her poetry before and I love how
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she incorporates her cultural identity into it. From this collection some of my favorite poems were in the voice of her father and reflect his sadness about being away from his home country. I gave the book a 3P because I don't think all teens would gravitate towards poetry, but I do think bicultural teens would enjoy and identify with her work.
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LibraryThing member alicen3
The power in this collection is that t it represented well the way teens may come to have a change in their perspective of their parents. Suddenly it becomes apparent which parts of your life have been influenced, "haunted" by this constant watchful presences especially in the work "Haunted". I
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think this would be interesting to consider for YA works as they come to understand the intricacies of life that they were previously unaware of.

Furthermore throughout the work the complex works challenge the concepts of family relationship and what it means to grow up in a culture that I was unaware of myself. This exposure to works that extend beyond the known are crucial for the development of young adults as it allows them to consider a world that extends beyond their own. Overall, what this collection of poetry gives most is the idea of hope for the masses.
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Publication

BOA Editions Ltd. (2011), 128 pages

Awards

Arab American National Museum Book Award (Honorable Mention — Poetry — 2012)

Language

Original language

English

ISBN

9781934414521
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