Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet and writer of longing. These longings are multiple and linked to her biography. She was born and raised in Lebanon, educated at the American University of Beirut. She created a bilingual form called the Duet, in which Arabic and English exist both independently and in conversation with each other. Zeina was awarded several prizes for her poetry collections. Her latest, “O”, won the Arab American Book Award and was named Best Book 2022 by the New York Public Library. After a lifetime in Lebanon and a decade in Dubai, she moved to California with her husband and two daughters. Her fourth poetry collection, This Was Supposed to Be About Beauty, is forthcoming in March 2027.

In this episode, we speak about Zeinas multilingual writing and her biography of migrations over several countries. She describes her invisible grief in exile when bad things – like bombings – happen in her homeland. She describes what makes her question her writing in English – “the language of the Empire” and how she is trying to “decolonize” her brain. At the same time she lives in California, where Etel Adnan was writing in Exile before and Zeina senses her traces. Of course, it wasn’t a conversation with Zeina if it wasn’t supposed to be about beauty: With host Andrea Zeina explores Bougainvillea trees and how they root in her life, no matter where she is. They reflect on motherhood and “how friends unscare” us, as Zeina puts it. And how “the Mediterranean leans in on you and is tender” just like this episode is supposed to do…