"Supplies of Grace": The Poetry of Mohja Kahf By Lisa Suhair Majaj

If you do not yet know Syrian-American writer Mohja Kahf, odds are you soon will. The author of poetry, creative nonfiction, essays, literary criticism, academic scholarship, short fiction and most recently a novel (1), Kahf is a literary virtuoso, shaking the staid ground of predictability and launching her readers into new literary vistas. Whatever her genre, Kahf offers articulate, passionate challenges to commonplace perceptions of the Middle East, Muslim women and Arab Americans, striking notes of humor, compassion, outrage and celebration that resonate across the literary register.

Kahf has a keen eye for the creative dissonance of seemingly incongruous juxtapositions. As a Muslim feminist in the United States, one of her projects is to unsettle the rigid stereotypes that so often imprison Muslim women behind walls of misperception. Take the title of her poetry volume "Emails from Scheherazad". The image conjured up--of Scheherazad bent over a computer keyboard, veil flung back, manicured nails clacking as she types missives to American readers -- is quintessential Kahf. Emails? From Scheherazad? She of harem fame, who wove stories through the night to stave off her own death at the hands of her husband? Well, why not? As Kahf makes clear, Muslim and Arab women are part and parcel of the contemporary landscape, living American lives in the heart of the U.S. amid the "motley miscellany of the land." Indeed, in many ways Scheherazad -- the exemplar not only of "oriental" women but of storytellers everywhere -- is Kahf herself: the writer penning urgent messages to a world unprepared to recognize her wit, humor, lyricism, passion and intellect, and all too ready to negate her worth as a Muslim Arab woman. Like Scheherazad, Kahf is engaged in the act of saving her life through words.

Mohja Kahf. Photograph by April Brown

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