TPFF Presents the Toronto Launch of Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Join us for a poetry reading, discussion, and musical interpretation of Khalaf Tuffaha's poetry by musician Roula Said.
Book description: It’s nearly impossible to write poetry that holds the human desire for joy and the insistent agitations of protest at the same time, but Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s gorgeous and wide-ranging new collection Something About Living does just that.
Her poems interweave Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence. Khalaf Tuffaha’s elegant poems sing the fractured songs of Diaspora while remaining clear-eyed to the cause of the fracturing: the multinational hubris of colonialism and greed.
This collection is her witness to our collective unraveling, vowel by vowel, syllable by syllable. “Let the plural be a return of us” the speaker of “On the Thirtieth Friday We Consider Plurals” says and this plurality is our tenuous humanity and the deep need to hang on to kindness in our communities.
In these poems Khalaf Tuffaha reminds us that love isn’t an idea; it is a radical act. Especially for those who, like this poet, travel through the world vigilantly, but steadfastly remain heart first.—Adrian Matejka, author of Somebody Else Sold the World.
Lena will be signing her books after her talk. Order your book in advance via the registration at a discount $21 (tax included); or pick it up at the TIFF shop for $23.10 (plus tax).
About Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist and translator. She is the author of Water & Salt (Red Hen), which won the 2018 Washington State Book Award, Kaan & Her Sisters (Trio House Press) finalist for the Firecracker Award, and Something About Living (UAkron, 2024), winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry. Her writing has been published in journals including Los Angeles Review of Books, the Nation, Poets.org, Protean, and Prairie Schooner; and in anthologies including The Long Devotion and We Call to the Eye and the Night. She was the translator and curator of the 2022 series “Poems from Palestine” at the Baffler magazine. She is currently curating a series on Palestinian writers for Words Without Borders entitled Against Silence.
Learn More about Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Copresented by: Another Story Bookshop, Writers Against the War on Gaza - TO, Poetry for Palestine Toronto and Hearing Palestine Initiative U of T
