Lisa Suhair Majaj, a Palestinian-American poet and Arab-American literature critic and scholar, read some of her poems to approximately a dozen people on Monday.
A child of a Palestinian father and American mother, Majaj grew up in Jordan and studied in Lebanon. She spoke in the Laminan Lounge in the F.W. Olin Center.
Professor Amira El-Zein, the director of the Arabic program, introduced Majaj and described her poetry as filled with "nostalgia and sadness" yet also with the "beauty of life."
Much of Majaj's writing comes from her time in Lebanon, where she was during the Israeli invasion in 1982. "A lot of my poetry deals with the past," she said. "I write a lot about the Middle East."
Her poems about that period describe the landscape of Beirut and her feelings about the invasion. "The process of putting into words things you see is tremendously empowering," Majaj said.
Poetry gives Majaj an outlet for her emotions. "For me, poetry is very important and I find it a way to have a voice in the world," she said. "Some people don't find it relevant or important. I think poetry doesn't have to be those things."
Majaj began writing before she was a teenager but did not consider writing as a career until she was older. "I've been writing since I was 11 years old," she said. "I had a fantastic English teacher. One of our projects in school was to write a book of poetry, but I didn't take it seriously until I was in my late 20s, early 30s."
Majaj left Beirut during the invasion and came to the United States, where she said she experienced dramatic culture shock. When she heard a car backfire, she said, she would "hide behind a tree."
Her experiences in her new home and her memories of Beirut inspired her to write, she said.
Majaj, who now lives in Cyprus, has published work in many journals and anthologies, and has co-edited three books of critical essays on the Arab world and Third World female writers.
Both Arab and American writers have influenced Majaj's writing. She particularly took to American writers of color and those who had witnessed war, as she had.
It was in the United States that Majaj said she realized she could make her poetry politically driven. "I write in poetry," she said. "I'm not a political scientist. Poets don't make policy, but I've found my poems being used in venues" other than poetry circles, she said.
Majaj said she often writes in response to the many e-mails she receives. "They don't have snow days in Palestine," one e-mail read. "They have military invasion days."
Her Palestinian heritage gave her a "sense of displacement," Majaj said. While living in Jordan, she said, "There was always a sense of trying to reclaim something that was lost."
Not until she was an adult did she understand the concept of being able to visit but not reclaim her family's homeland.
Unable to return permanently, Majaj said she identified with many in the Palestinian diaspora.
When Majaj was pregnant with her second child, she began identifying with pregnant Palestinian women trying to pass through Israeli checkpoints. This association with the powerless has influenced her writing, she said.
In her poetry Majaj tries to dispel stereotypes about Arabs and to offer her own opinions on the war in Iraq.
As advice to aspiring poets, Majaj recommended stream of consciousness writing. "I usually don't know what I'm going to write," she said. "I think free-writing is one of the most powerful tools of writing."
Poetry is a "response to the world and to what's inside of me," Majaj said. "It's a way of living in the world. Poetry's always been something magical, mysterious and wonderful."
