Zeina Hashem Beck

Zeina Hashem Beck
زينة هاشم بيك
Zeina reading at a microphone
Beck at a reading in 2017
Born
Tripoli, Lebanon
Alma materAmerican University of Beirut
OccupationPoet
Writing career
Notable workO
Notable awardsGeorge Ellenbogen Poetry Award (2023)
Websitewww.zeinahashembeck.com

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

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

Poetry collections

  • 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

  • 3arabi Song. Rattle, 2016.[3] Reviewed in World Literature Today and So to Speak.[21][22]
  • There Was and How Much There Was. smith/doorstop (UK-only release), 2016.[8]

Anthologies edited

  • 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

Awards and honors

  • 2013 Backwaters Prize in Poetry, for To Live in Autumn[2]
  • 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize, for 3arabi Song[3]
  • 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, for Louder than Hearts[9]
  • 2017 Frederick Bock Prize, for "Maqam"[4]
  • 2023 George Ellenbogen Poetry Award, for O[3]

References

  1. 1 2 Qualey, Lynx (3 July 2020). "زينة هاشم بيك: ثنائية اللغة والأنماط الشعرية". Al-Fanar Media (in Arabic). Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 "Zeina Hashem Beck". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "2023 Arab American Book Award Winners". Arab American National Museum. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "2017 Prizes for Contributors to Poetry Announced". Poetry Foundation. 24 August 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "flourishing in the margins: an interview with Zeina Hashem Beck". Harana Poetry. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  6. 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.
  7. 1 2 "To Live in Autumn". University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  8. 1 2 "There Was and How Much There Was by Zeina Hashem Beck". The Poetry Book Society. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  9. 1 2 3 "Louder than Hearts". Bauhan Publishing. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  10. ↑ Elkamel, Sara (19 July 2022). "A Conversation with Zeina Hashem Beck". The Adroit Journal. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  11. ↑ 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.
  12. 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.
  13. ↑ "Zeina Hashem Beck". Alan Cheuse International Writers Center. George Mason University. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  14. 1 2 "O by Zeina Hashem Beck". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  15. 1 2 "We Call to the Eye & the Night". Persea Books. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  16. ↑ Abel, Colleen. "To Live in Autumn". New Orleans Review. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  17. ↑ O'Brien, Sean Hewitt (8 May 2017). "Review | Louder Than Hearts by Zeina Hashem Beck". The London Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  18. ↑ Wong, Jennifer (11 May 2017). ""Louder than Hearts", poems by Zeina Hashem Beck". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ 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.
  22. ↑ Badra, Danielle (7 November 2016). "Review of Zeina Hashem Beck's 3arabi Song". So to Speak. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  23. ↑ "Maqam". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  24. ↑ "There, There, Grieving". Academy of American Poets. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  25. ↑ "Standup Sonnet". Academy of American Poets. 6 October 2025. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.