Forty Names

by Parwana Fayyaz

Overview

A New Statesman Book of the Year 2021 In this remarkable first collection, Parwana Fayyaz evokes events in the lives of Afghan women, past and present – their endurance and achievements, told from their points of view. John McAuliffe writes of the 'remarkable litanies, which haunt her poems' occasions' and the title poem, with which she won the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, is such a litany, conjuring and commemorating.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800171077
Publisher:	Carcanet Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/30/2021
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Parwana Fayyaz was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1990. From the age of seven to sixteen, she was raised in Quetta, Pakistan. Once her family was able to return to Kabul, she finished high school and enrolled in her first English program in Chittagong, Bangladesh, where she also began her undergraduate studies. In 2012, she transferred to Stanford, where she earned a BA, with a major in Comparative Literature and a minor in Creative Writing, and an MA in Religious Studies. In 2016, she moved to Trinity College, Cambridge, to pursue a PhD in Persian Studies.

Table of Contents

Roqeeya

Sewing Needles 1

Three Dolls 3

Bright Dreams 5

The Old Kitchen 7

The Scorpion 8

Roqeeya 10

Patience Flower to Morning Dew

Patience Flower to Morning Dew 15

A Letter to Flower and Crown 20

Aunt Quietude's Journey 22

The Perfect Woman 27

Grandmother Lion's Ruby Ring 32

Grandmother Lion's Old Love Story 34

Two Gravestones 36

The Emerald Ring 38

The Silent Poet 40

Queen of Sheba 43

Golden-haired Zari 50

Forty Names

Forty Names 59

Wolf-Rider 63

Durrani 65

In Search of a Woman

Her Name is Flower Sap 69

The Flower in the Pear 71

The Caller and Her Constellation 73

Reading Nadia with Eavan 75

The Woman on the Rock 78

In Search of a Woman 79