Her Bones Catch the Sun

was published in 2018 by The Poet's Haven.

Download it here.

Sakr explores place, family, faith, and memory with such tenderness and detail. She moves between Jordan and the US, between the Virgin Mary and Emily Dickinson, between grandmother and mother and daughter, telling stories, paying tribute, asking "Do you remember?" A beautiful nostalgia-filled collection about what we inherit and carry.

                    -Zeina Hashem Beck, author of "O"

Aiya Sakr's poems mine her rich Palestinian-Jordanian heritage to illuminate the difficult, at times liberating, spaces between cultures and languages. Here we find youth sitting in the swirling smoke of hookah bars, a cobblestone staircase winding toward the old city, a steaming mug, "mint, milk, sugar, and all." Sakr skillfully and courageously steers us toward deeply personal experiences around which global controversies swirl. We are left grateful, "our hearts beating with a single rhythm."

    -Ben Gunsberg, author of "Welcome, Dangerous Life"