Author(s): Sara M Saleh

Poetry

A stunning collection from Sydney poet, human rights activist, community organiser, and refugee campaigner Sara M Saleh.The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat is a dazzling collection that examines and represents the complexity of Arab-Australian Muslim women's identities, as well as exploring gender and power dynamics, intergenerational trauma and transformation, and the burdens and blessings of dislocation and relocation. The poems are wide-ranging in terms of form and subject matter, and include archival and contemporary depictions of women's experiences of war, colonial and patriarchal violence, and exile and migration. The collection is often deeply personal - a multilayered conversation amongst three generations of women in Sara's family - while also being urgent, timely and of universal resonance.