Having spent many years away from her native Syria for her education and work, Malak Mustafa writes with deep sorrow for those forced to flee the war. Her poems give voice, in particular, to the Syrians who drowned while trying to reach Lesbos by sea.
She writes in the hope that the cries rising from the island might awaken the conscience of a world caught in digital blindness and deafness. In one poem, she calls herself “the chief purveyor of hope.”
Writing in a direct and intimate voice, Mustafa also confronts her own losses. She opens the doors to her innermost rooms, seeking to understand and describe what she finds there. In doing so, she makes the forces that shape a life both visible and deeply felt.