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Poetry | $15 ($14 direct from UDP)
Perfect-bound. 88 pp, 6 x 8 in.
ISBN 978-1-933254-97-5
Publication Date: December 1, 2012
Distribution: SPD
Read Press Release (PDF)
"Maged Zaher: my favorite discovery, so far, of 2013. His poems are totally alive, funny, sharp, shapely, and never dull. A great pleasure to read this effervescent, awake book." —Wayne Koestenbaum
Thank You For The Window Office is the second book by Egyptian-American poet and translator Maged Zaher. This is a book as much about alienation as it is about belonging. Zaher investigates the subtleties of place and identity in late-capitalism, the corporate world, and the dating scene. These poems navigate the linguistic landscapes that an immigrant writing in his non-native tongue negotiates daily in a foreign culture. This unusual confluence creates a wry exploration of the social and lingual that blends the musicality of the Arabic language with a sardonic humor unique to America popular culture.
Maged Zaher is in my view the contemporary writer simultaneously the furthest inside and the most outside the English language as we know it. If Frank O'Hara had been an Arab and a Coptic Christian living in late capitalist Seattle, he would have been called Maged Zaher. —Leonard Schwartz
[excerpt]
On why I became a terrorist:
My childhood was bad—
The government invited everyone to brunch
But showed up late
Having a sexy mother didn’t help either
So I composed poems
While watching you drink
There is suffering in the universe
It can give you pleasant feelings to know
That others are also tired
The futurists were on our backs
Never agree to the fifteen-minute rule
This book was made possible in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
NEWS AND REVIEWS
01.30.13 | Maged Zaher is “out to lunch” with David Ulin in LA Times
LINKS
An excerpt of Thank You for the Window Office from Rattapallax
(http://rattapallax.org/blog/2010/from-rimbaud-outsourced-or-thank-you-for-the-window-office/)
Portrait of the Poet As an Engineer on SPD
(http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9780982410011/portrait-of-the-poet-as-an-engineer.aspx)
Maged Zaher is the author of the full-length book of poetry, Portrait of the Poet As an Engineer, published by Pressed Wafer in 2009. His collaborative work with the Australian poet Pam Brown, Farout Library Software, was published by Tinfish Press in 2007. His translations of contemporary Egyptian poetry have appeared in Jacket magazine and Banipal. He has performed his work at Subtext, Bumbershoot, the Kootenay School of Writing, St. Marks Project, Evergreen State College, and American University in Cairo, among other places.
