We grow up at the speed of war

by Faleeha Hassan

Collection of poems talking about the experience of war in Iraq

64 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2016

About the author

Faleeha Hassan is an Iraqi poet living in New Jersey. She grew up in Najaf and was a precocious reader as a child, but her schooling was interrupted in 1980 when her middle school was closed for the Iran–Iraq War. She would eventually earn a masters in Arabic Literature from the University of Kufa in 2006.

In 1991, she became the first woman in Najaf to publish a book of poetry, I Am a Girl. In 2012, she became the first woman in Iraq to publish a book of poetry for children " A Dream Guard " She fled Iraq after her name appeared on a militant group's death list in 2011. She fled first to Eskişehir in Turkey, then to Afyonkarahisar, where she insisted her children be allowed to attend school in order to stay warm. After working with the United Nations office in Ankara, She was accepted into the United States by a Roman Catholic charity.

Reviews

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of poetry for my Around-the-World reading challenge (Iraq). The poems that caught my eye were "The Heart has a Dream to Protect" and "What Interests Me".