A Boat to Lesbos: and other poems in Bloomington, MN

A Boat to Lesbos, by Syrian poet Nouri al-Jarrah (his first collection in English translation), was written as Syrian refugees endured frightening journeys across the Mediterranean before arriving on the small island. Set out like a Greek tragedy, it is dramatic witness to the horrors and ravages they suffered, seen through the eye of history, the poetry of Sappho and the travels of Odysseus. In 2021 A Boat to Lesbos was shortlisted for the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation.