For years, Jennifer Jean and Hanaa Ahmad Jabr have been exchanging poems from Mosul to Massachusetts and back, and they're now collected into a book, Where Do You Live? with translations by Wadaq Qais and Tamara Al-Attiya. They join us for a special episode at a special time (12pm ET).

Dr. Hanaa Ahmad Jabr was born in Mosul, Iraq. She is a prize-winning poet and short story writer who has participated in critical conferences and international poetry festivals. She has a PhD of Philosophy in Arabic Literature. Her books include the poetry collections I Draw My Sorrow from His Collar, and two books of criticism: The Dialectic of Poetry and Prose in Modernist Poetry, and The Poetics of the Prose Poem. Additionally, she’s released a children’s book: Sultan and Shanidar. Hanaa teaches at the University of Mosul.

Jennifer Jean first appeared in episode 76 of the Rattlecast. Her poetry collections include VOZ, Object Lesson, and The Fool. Her resource book is Object Lesson: a Guide to Writing Poetry and she’s the editor of the forthcoming anthology Other Paths for Shahrazad: a Bilingual Anthology of Poetry by Arab Women (Tupelo Press, 2026). Jennifer is an organizer for the Her Story Is collective, a faculty member at Solstice MFA, and a senior program manager at the Fine Arts Work Center.

Wadaq Qais was born in Basra, Iraq. She received a degree in accounting in 2021. Later, she found her true calling in the Translation Department at the University of Basra, College of the Arts, where she is completing her studies. Reading provided her a gateway to other worlds, allowing her to broaden her perspective and expertise in the disciplines of both literary and business translation.

For more information, visit:

https://www.arrowsmithpress.com/hanaa-ahmad-jabr-jennifer-jean

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem set in a garden you’ve only been to once before and include a metaphor.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a postcard poem to someone that would be very surprised to hear from you.

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