In her prose and her poetry, Sara M. Saleh renders unique the ways people resist, transcend, adapt, make the best of things, compromise, endure, and lose hope and faith.
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Callouts for 2024 exhibition programming, composer-in-residence program, plus winners of Brisbane Portrait Prize, finalists for emerging playwright commission and more.
Sara Saleh says she is still “processing” the win of one of Australia’s most prestigious poetry honours – the Peter Porter poetry prize.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind and I’ve been so floored and overwhelmed,” the 33-year-old told SBS Voices.
Sara Saleh.
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Her award-winning poem, the ‘The Poetics of Fourgetting’ explores the experiences of a resettled Lebanese family from the daughter’s point of view, set on Haldon Street, Lakemba in Sydney’s west. Rich with the tensions of immigrant life, it explores recurring themes in Saleh’s work; there’s the brute force of racism, and the lyrical heartbreak of tussling with longing, desire, transgression and God. (A standout line from her first collection is the line: “hymen thick with truth”.)