Pamphlets series

Marvellous compressions.

John Madera, Big Other

Alomar’s English-language poetry collection debut

Fullblood Arabian

by Osama Alomar

Translated from Arabic by C. J. Collins

With a contribution by Lydia Davis

Osama Alomar, in his poetic fictions, embodies the wisdom of Kahlil Gibran filtered through the violent gray absurdity of Assad’s police state. Fullblood Arabian is the first English publication of Alomar’s strange, often humorously satirical allegories, where good and evil battle with indifference, avarice, and compassion in striking imagery and effervescent language.

I read in a book the following piece of wisdom: “He who remains silent in the face of injustice is a mute Satan.” I went out into the street and saw Satan everywhere.

Articles:

Lydia Davis on Osama Alomar in The New Yorker.

Paperback(published Jan, 27 2014)

ISBN
9780811221764
Price US
11.95
Price CN
11.99
Page Count
48
Portrait of Osama Alomar

Osama Alomar

Syrian-American poet and short story writer

Marvellous compressions.

John Madera, Big Other

[His stories] convey a raw combination of beauty and resignation, as if the two were created to reside under the same roof, hope and hurt at one …. Alomar is a man of small but universally affecting insights.

The American

The stories’ distinctive flavour comes from Alomar’s masterful shifts of character perspective within extremely tight parameters.…The book is full of these moments which trip you up, swing bluntly from one psyche to another, rapidly decelerate time and play with scale, all of it exposing the delicate balance of our presumptions and allegiances; the small dictatorships that we foster second by second.

Emma Jacobs, Asymptote Blog

In Alomar’s stories…fantasy never devolves into mere whimsy. His magical imaginative creations are, every one, inspired by his deeply felt philosophical, moral, and political convictions, giving these tales a heartfelt urgency.

Lydia Davis, The New Yorker