WHEN TIME IS CIRCULAR, poetry by Shams Alkamil
Publication Date: June 15, 2024
Paperback, 96 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-68-4
$25.00 retail, $20.00 from publisher
“I wrote this book as a way to go back in time,” Shams Alkamil says of her new poetry collection, inspired by the movie Arrival to see “how language and the experiences of life are not linear. Rather, they are circular.” She begins with her own birth, but her story is far older than that, the timeless experience of womanhood, and in her case the discovery of her identity as a young “Black Muslimah” immigrant in America, circling among worlds and cultures. Inevitably she encounters violence, personally and globally (her “Ode to the Women of Palestine” has never been more necessary), and she writes her way through “anger, which really was just grief with a scary mask.” In “Time Became Circular in 2023” she determines to “plant a downtrodden stake into the [preceding] calendar year” for the sake of “every martyred soul who can never leave 2023, no matter how desperately they plead from the grave. / Yes, yes, I think it is better if I stay in 2023. I’d like not to forget how we got into this mess.” But she also suggests a way out of the mess, in her discovery that “love is also circular. It is never lost, never abandoned, never conditional. The thread of time is, and always will be, stitched by the needle of love.”
Praise for Shams Alkamil & When Time Is Circular
When Time is Circular is courageous, vulnerable, and demands attention. Alkamil’s familiar odes to womanhood, which is nearly always parallel to violence, draw sharp breath in readers only to exhale sighs of relief at the remarkable use of space which breathes life back into her experiences as a Black immigrant woman of faith. Clever, humorous, and raw, this book will break your heart open and then put the pieces back together.
—Sara Bawany, author of (w)holehearted & Quarter Life Crisis
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular makes me ache with its familiarity and dazzles me with its newness, its bright and inventive language, its clear and playful and tender eye.
—Safia Elhillo, author Bright Red Fruit, Girls That Never Die, & others
Shams Alkamil offers a highly visceral, visually evocative collection in When Time is Circular. A voice begging to leap out of the body’s cage, Alkamil explores what it means to be “difficultwomen” who’ve had to learn discretion in life and love. Her writing “curls into a question mark,” exploring faith and its many (un)tests. Alkamil’s dedication to understanding who and where she emerges from radiates through every stanza, and as we read through her words, we too begin to “undress our assimilation at dinnertime.” And even though Alkamil “swallows gulps of self-sabotage,” and constantly questions her relationship to writing, she dares to “try again,” and for this, we are thankful. Gift this collection to the gentle and fearless in your life, and remind them that they too are alive and well."
—Samah Fadil, author of light, dark, in-between
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular is a meditation on the different homes we encounter in life. Like storytellers of old, Alkamil untangles the what it means to be of a place (or of a body, or of a family, or of memory) with tenderness, humor, and most of all, unwavering honesty."
—London Pinkney, Editor-in-Chief of The Ana
About the Author
Shams Alkamil is a Black Muslim poet. Alkamil began writing as a mode of self-expression to then being nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut book West 24th Street highlights the anchor a location has on lived experiences. Alkamil speaks of her struggles with queerness, self-love,and the immigrant experience. Her work has appeared internationally in Mizna, The Ana, Ruth Weiss Foundation, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Writer Con, Poet’s Choice, and more.
Publication Date: June 15, 2024
Paperback, 96 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-68-4
$25.00 retail, $20.00 from publisher
“I wrote this book as a way to go back in time,” Shams Alkamil says of her new poetry collection, inspired by the movie Arrival to see “how language and the experiences of life are not linear. Rather, they are circular.” She begins with her own birth, but her story is far older than that, the timeless experience of womanhood, and in her case the discovery of her identity as a young “Black Muslimah” immigrant in America, circling among worlds and cultures. Inevitably she encounters violence, personally and globally (her “Ode to the Women of Palestine” has never been more necessary), and she writes her way through “anger, which really was just grief with a scary mask.” In “Time Became Circular in 2023” she determines to “plant a downtrodden stake into the [preceding] calendar year” for the sake of “every martyred soul who can never leave 2023, no matter how desperately they plead from the grave. / Yes, yes, I think it is better if I stay in 2023. I’d like not to forget how we got into this mess.” But she also suggests a way out of the mess, in her discovery that “love is also circular. It is never lost, never abandoned, never conditional. The thread of time is, and always will be, stitched by the needle of love.”
Praise for Shams Alkamil & When Time Is Circular
When Time is Circular is courageous, vulnerable, and demands attention. Alkamil’s familiar odes to womanhood, which is nearly always parallel to violence, draw sharp breath in readers only to exhale sighs of relief at the remarkable use of space which breathes life back into her experiences as a Black immigrant woman of faith. Clever, humorous, and raw, this book will break your heart open and then put the pieces back together.
—Sara Bawany, author of (w)holehearted & Quarter Life Crisis
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular makes me ache with its familiarity and dazzles me with its newness, its bright and inventive language, its clear and playful and tender eye.
—Safia Elhillo, author Bright Red Fruit, Girls That Never Die, & others
Shams Alkamil offers a highly visceral, visually evocative collection in When Time is Circular. A voice begging to leap out of the body’s cage, Alkamil explores what it means to be “difficultwomen” who’ve had to learn discretion in life and love. Her writing “curls into a question mark,” exploring faith and its many (un)tests. Alkamil’s dedication to understanding who and where she emerges from radiates through every stanza, and as we read through her words, we too begin to “undress our assimilation at dinnertime.” And even though Alkamil “swallows gulps of self-sabotage,” and constantly questions her relationship to writing, she dares to “try again,” and for this, we are thankful. Gift this collection to the gentle and fearless in your life, and remind them that they too are alive and well."
—Samah Fadil, author of light, dark, in-between
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular is a meditation on the different homes we encounter in life. Like storytellers of old, Alkamil untangles the what it means to be of a place (or of a body, or of a family, or of memory) with tenderness, humor, and most of all, unwavering honesty."
—London Pinkney, Editor-in-Chief of The Ana
About the Author
Shams Alkamil is a Black Muslim poet. Alkamil began writing as a mode of self-expression to then being nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut book West 24th Street highlights the anchor a location has on lived experiences. Alkamil speaks of her struggles with queerness, self-love,and the immigrant experience. Her work has appeared internationally in Mizna, The Ana, Ruth Weiss Foundation, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Writer Con, Poet’s Choice, and more.
Publication Date: June 15, 2024
Paperback, 96 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-68-4
$25.00 retail, $20.00 from publisher
“I wrote this book as a way to go back in time,” Shams Alkamil says of her new poetry collection, inspired by the movie Arrival to see “how language and the experiences of life are not linear. Rather, they are circular.” She begins with her own birth, but her story is far older than that, the timeless experience of womanhood, and in her case the discovery of her identity as a young “Black Muslimah” immigrant in America, circling among worlds and cultures. Inevitably she encounters violence, personally and globally (her “Ode to the Women of Palestine” has never been more necessary), and she writes her way through “anger, which really was just grief with a scary mask.” In “Time Became Circular in 2023” she determines to “plant a downtrodden stake into the [preceding] calendar year” for the sake of “every martyred soul who can never leave 2023, no matter how desperately they plead from the grave. / Yes, yes, I think it is better if I stay in 2023. I’d like not to forget how we got into this mess.” But she also suggests a way out of the mess, in her discovery that “love is also circular. It is never lost, never abandoned, never conditional. The thread of time is, and always will be, stitched by the needle of love.”
Praise for Shams Alkamil & When Time Is Circular
When Time is Circular is courageous, vulnerable, and demands attention. Alkamil’s familiar odes to womanhood, which is nearly always parallel to violence, draw sharp breath in readers only to exhale sighs of relief at the remarkable use of space which breathes life back into her experiences as a Black immigrant woman of faith. Clever, humorous, and raw, this book will break your heart open and then put the pieces back together.
—Sara Bawany, author of (w)holehearted & Quarter Life Crisis
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular makes me ache with its familiarity and dazzles me with its newness, its bright and inventive language, its clear and playful and tender eye.
—Safia Elhillo, author Bright Red Fruit, Girls That Never Die, & others
Shams Alkamil offers a highly visceral, visually evocative collection in When Time is Circular. A voice begging to leap out of the body’s cage, Alkamil explores what it means to be “difficultwomen” who’ve had to learn discretion in life and love. Her writing “curls into a question mark,” exploring faith and its many (un)tests. Alkamil’s dedication to understanding who and where she emerges from radiates through every stanza, and as we read through her words, we too begin to “undress our assimilation at dinnertime.” And even though Alkamil “swallows gulps of self-sabotage,” and constantly questions her relationship to writing, she dares to “try again,” and for this, we are thankful. Gift this collection to the gentle and fearless in your life, and remind them that they too are alive and well."
—Samah Fadil, author of light, dark, in-between
Shams Alkamil’s When Time is Circular is a meditation on the different homes we encounter in life. Like storytellers of old, Alkamil untangles the what it means to be of a place (or of a body, or of a family, or of memory) with tenderness, humor, and most of all, unwavering honesty."
—London Pinkney, Editor-in-Chief of The Ana
About the Author
Shams Alkamil is a Black Muslim poet. Alkamil began writing as a mode of self-expression to then being nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut book West 24th Street highlights the anchor a location has on lived experiences. Alkamil speaks of her struggles with queerness, self-love,and the immigrant experience. Her work has appeared internationally in Mizna, The Ana, Ruth Weiss Foundation, Tofu Ink Arts Press, Writer Con, Poet’s Choice, and more.