Zeina Hashem Beck
Zeina Hashem Beck | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Beck at a reading in 2017 | |
| Native name | زينة هاشم بيك |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Alma mater | American University of Beirut |
| Notable works | O |
| Notable awards | George Ellenbogen Poetry Award (2023) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Zeina Hashem Beck (Arabic: زينة هاشم بيك) is a Lebanese poet.[1] She is the author of the poetry collections To Live in Autumn, Louder than Hearts, and O, which won the 2023 George Ellenbogen Poetry Award.[2][3] Her poem "Maqam" won Poetry magazine's 2017 Frederick Bock Prize.[4]
Life and career
[edit]Hashem Beck was born and raised in Tripoli, Lebanon.[5][6] She moved to Beirut at 18 and studied English literature at the American University of Beirut, where she earned a BA and an MA.[5][6]
Her first poetry collection, To Live in Autumn, was published by The Backwaters Press in 2014 after winning the 2013 Backwaters Prize in Poetry.[7][2] In 2016, her chapbook 3arabi Song won the Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was was published by smith/doorstop (UK) as a Laureate's Choice selected by Carol Ann Duffy.[6][3][8]
Her second full-length collection, Louder than Hearts, was published in 2017 after winning the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize.[9] In 2017, her poem "Maqam" won the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry magazine.[4]
Hashem Beck writes in English and Arabic. In interviews, she has discussed a bilingual poetic form she calls "The Duet", in which English and Arabic poems can be read separately and in relation to one another.[5][6][10] A 2026 article in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications discussed her use of shape poetry, translingual poetics, and multilingual forms across her poetry collections.[11] While living in Dubai, she founded and hosted an open mic night.[5][1] After living in Dubai, she moved to California in 2022.[12][13]
Penguin Books published her third full-length collection, O.[14] It won the 2023 George Ellenbogen Poetry Award from the Arab American National Museum.[3] Hashem Beck is also the co-host, with poet Farah Chamma, of Maqsouda, a podcast about Arabic poetry, and co-edited the anthology We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage with Hala Alyan.[3][15]
Selected works
[edit]Poetry collections
[edit]- To Live in Autumn. The Backwaters Press (at the University of Nebraska Press), 2014.[7] Reviewed in New Orleans Review.[16]
- Louder than Hearts. Bauhan Publishing, 2017.[9] Reviewed in The London Magazine and Asian Review of Books.[17][18]
- O. Penguin Books, 2022.[14] Winner of the 2023 George Ellenbogen Poetry Award.[3] Reviewed or discussed in Chicago Review of Books, L'Orient Today, and Poetry School.[19][12][20]
Chapbooks
[edit]Anthologies edited
[edit]- We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Heritage. Persea Books, 2023. Co-edited with Hala Alyan.[15]
Selected poems
[edit]- "Maqam", Poetry, 2017.[23]
- "There, There, Grieving", Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, 2018.[24]
- "Standup Sonnet", Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, 2025.[25]
Awards and honors
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 Qualey, Lynx (3 July 2020). "زينة هاشم بيك: ثنائية اللغة والأنماط الشعرية". Al-Fanar Media (in Arabic). Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Zeina Hashem Beck". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "2023 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 "2017 Prizes for Contributors to Poetry Announced". Poetry Foundation. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "flourishing in the margins: an interview with Zeina Hashem Beck". Harana Poetry. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Mekkawi, Lara (3 August 2018). "NAYA | Zeina Hashem Beck: A poet whose journey began with an elegy". An-Nahar. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 "To Live in Autumn". University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 "There Was and How Much There Was by Zeina Hashem Beck". The Poetry Book Society. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Louder than Hearts". Bauhan Publishing. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Elkamel, Sara (19 July 2022). "A Conversation with Zeina Hashem Beck". The Adroit Journal. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Hambuch, Doris; Alshehhi, Aaesha; Alkarbi, Noura; Haneef, Afreen (2026). "Pattern poetry and ludic relief in Zeina Hashem Beck's oeuvre". Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 13 198. doi:10.1057/s41599-026-06497-5. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 Jawad, Tracy Jeff (7 July 2022). "Zeina Hashem Beck's poetry collection 'O': a little bit of everything". L'Orient Today. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ "Zeina Hashem Beck". Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. George Mason University. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 "O by Zeina Hashem Beck". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- 1 2 "We Call to the Eye & the Night". Persea Books. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Abel, Colleen. "To Live in Autumn". New Orleans Review. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ O'Brien, Sean Hewitt (8 May 2017). "Review | Louder Than Hearts by Zeina Hashem Beck". The London Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Wong, Jennifer (11 May 2017). ""Louder than Hearts", poems by Zeina Hashem Beck". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Rafeek, Rushda (12 July 2022). ""Our Cities Live In Our Bodies": On Locating The Self Within in "O"". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Wong, Jennifer. "Review Roundup – Inspector Inspector by Jee Leong Koh, Faust by Sandeep Parmar, O by Zeina Hashem Beck". Poetry School. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Papa, Stephanie (16 November 2016). ""All poems are Arabic to me": A Review of 3arabi Song, by Zeina Hashem Beck". World Literature Today. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ Badra, Danielle (7 November 2016). "Review of Zeina Hashem Beck's 3arabi Song". So to Speak. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ "Maqam". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ "There, There, Grieving". Academy of American Poets. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
- ↑ "Standup Sonnet". Academy of American Poets. 6 October 2025. Retrieved 30 April 2026.