Exiles of Eden - Paperback

by Ladan Ali Osman (Author)

Poems steeped in the Somali tradition refract the streets of Ferguson, the halls of Guantáaacute;namo, and the fields near Abu Ghraib through the myth of Adam and Eve to ask: What does it mean to be a refugee?

Exiles of Eden looks at the origin story of Adam, Eve, and their exile from the Garden of Eden, exploring displacement and alienation from its mythological origins to the present. In this formally experimental collection steeped in Somali narrative tradition, Osman gives voice to the experiences and traumas of displaced people over multiple generations. The characters in these poems encounter exile's strangeness while processing the profoundly isolating experience of knowing that once you are sent out of Eden, you can't go back.

Author Biography

Somali-born poet and essayist Ladan Osman is the author of The Kitchen-Dweller's Testimony (University of Nebraska Press, 2015), winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize, and the chapbook Ordinary Heaven, which appeared in the box-set Seven New Generation African Poets (Slapering Hol Press, 2014). Her next collection, Exiles of Eden, a work of poetry, photos, and experimental text, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press in 2019.