Language for a new century : contemporary poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and beyond / edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal, and Ravi Shankar

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

This monumental thematic anthology is like a crowded party of exceptionally brilliant people. At the end, you are dazed and dazzled, and everyone seems to run together in memory: the Chinese man who writes in his native ethnic tongue, the exiled Tibetan who lives in San Francisco, the persecuted Bangladeshi feminist, the emigrant from Turkmenistan who is now a prominent Swedish poet. Even a diligent reader of contemporary poetry will leave this gathering feeling humbled by ignorance of the immense poetic energy of what used to be called the East. The breadth of its sweep is both the anthology's strength and its weakness, for hundreds of poets are represented by single poems. What the poems share is an almost aggressive modernity, for the poets are as easy in airports as in souks, as familiar with the Internet as with ancient myths, as conversant with subaltern theory as with the smell of mangoes in a bazaar. They share, too, a political consciousness and conscience, making this as impressive a collection of poets of witness as has ever been assembled. Monaghan, Patricia.