Writing the Camp - the poetry collection written by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh during his work as the Refugee Hosts Writer-in-Residence - has been selected as one of the Best Poetry Books of 2021 by The Irish Times, with Seán Hewitt praising it as a "vital sequence of poems... a remarkable collection." Writing the Camp was…
Tag: writing and poetry
The Bomb Shelter
The Bomb Shelter by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, University of Oxford, Refugee Hosts, and Imagining Futures The bomb shelter: The camp’s alibi for a presence susceptible to its presence The private parts of the dead, circumcised with hindsight Guts as road signs Or a map Ruins summoning ruins Ruins fornicating ruins In rows, they ululated. The bomb shelter?…
With a third eye, I see the catastrophe
With a third eye, I see the catastrophe By Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, University of Oxford and Refugee Hosts [I write the secret]. On the doorstep, finding her way to the seeds that escaped her lap: Like the one who read the book, Son, read my swollen legs, another’s land. The camp happens in the distance.…
Yousif M. Qasmiyeh’s poetry in Odyssey: Words and Music of Finding Home
We are very pleased to announce that two new poems, 'A Soliloquy before Time' and 'Time,' by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, Refugee Hosts' writer-in-residence, will feature in Odyssey: Words and Music of Finding Home, a narrative recital by the award-winning actor Christopher Kent and pianist Gamal Khamis. You can watch the live stream of the recital performed on Friday…
The Dancer’s Tale
This Refugee Week, we are delighted to post an extract of the forthcoming work, Refugee Tales III, which explores - through writing and poetry - the experiences of those who variously experience detention in the UK. Refugee Tales is an outreach project of Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, and is inspired by the work of the Group, which has supported individuals in detention…