The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat (Sara M Saleh, UQP)

The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat, Sara M Saleh’s first published poetry collection, is a cathartic personal and political journey. Saleh sets the tone with the first few poems, saying in one of them, ‘Pain keeps travelling through lineage until one of us is ready to feel it.’ The short collection is an enchanting read that utilises experimental formats to discuss their captivating subject: Arab-Australian Muslim women’s gender, identities, and experiences with colonisation and trauma. No two poems in the collection read the same: Saleh uses blank space to create dynamic prose to match the sharp words of ‘Live from Gaza’; while in the entirely lowercase style of ‘All the places my father lost his faith’, the vulnerability of an immigrant father building a life for his children jumps off the page. The poems jump from past to present, to unravel conversations of three generations of Arab women in Saleh’s family. Saleh has perfected the art of depicting the Arab world and its people, both in the homeland and diaspora, with all its complexities, in a way that I think would make the great Palestinian poet forefather Darwish proud. The Flirtation of Girls (Ghazal el-Banat) cements Saleh as an up-and-coming poet to watch.

Read our interview with author Sara M Saleh about The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazel el-Banat here.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Eman X is an Australian-Egyptian emerging writer based on Gadigal land. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews