Beyond Elegy: Classical Arabic Women’s Poetry in Context

Marlé Hammond’s Beyond Elegy: Classical Arabic Women’s Poetry in Context examines Arabic women’s poetry, describing the historical circumstances of its production and analyzing several significant poems within the canon. We applaud the way in which Hammond brings early Arabic women’s poetry to life, even for non-specialists in the field. In the Preface, Hammond hopes that the reader “who is unfamiliar with women’s Arabic poetic legacy will now become acquainted with it, that the reader who has dismissed the legacy as consequential will now reconsider it, and that the reader who has actively engaged with that legacy will now find further cause for engagement.” We agree that Hammond’s sophisticated contribution has allowed her to achieve this goal.

The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies Book Award has been established by the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies to recognize and promote excellence in the fields of Middle East women’s or gender studies, broadly defined. It is given to an author whose work is judged to provide the year’s most significant and potentially influential contribution to Middle East women’s or gender studies. The deadline for 2013 Book Award nominations is May 1, 2012. For more information, visit www.jmews.org.