Sara M Saleh on 'The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat'

Sara M Saleh is a writer, poet, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants.  Her poetry is not only an inherently political act, but a deeply personal one. We could not think of a better person to join Hannah for the final episode of Booksmart of 2023.

With her first full-length poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara introduces us to the lives of girls and women as they come into being amidst war, colonial and patriarchal violence, and exile and migration. This searing work interrogates and represents the complexity of Arab-Australian Muslim women’s identities as they negotiate an irresistible world full of music and family, grit and grief, love and loss.

This is an important episode, that is definitely worth a listen.