I have mixed feelings about this book. At times, it is beautiful and evocative, but at other times the poems drag. So much is covered, like issues of nationality and sexuality. When I finished the book, I instantly thought that re-reading it would probably help me unpack and enjoy the poems more. I'm happy that I read this book, but it just wasn't for me.

Fatimah Asghar's poetry in If They Come For Us is everything I hoped it would be. It was raw and powerful. Her words paint her world and pull on your emotions. Her verses gave me chills and left me breathless. I particularly fell in love with My Love For Nature.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry. I loved that it switched between historical and modern topics. Fatimah Asghar's writing is extremely powerful and does an excellent job of explaining a variety of topics ranging from relationships to being a Muslim in America to the partition of India.

I feel like I could read this collection of poems over and over and still be still be left speechless by how beautiful and well done it is.

This book was eye opening and I am glad I read it.. Diverse voices and subjects are so important to read and it helps me to learn more about people who have had different experiences than I have,

If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar

BROOKE’S REVIEW

Fatimah Asghar’s If They Come for Us is a brilliant debut collection of poetry exploring themes of sexuality and race. Asghar’s perspective as a young Pakistani Muslim woman in America is a fresh and needed voice in America today.

I particularly enjoyed her poems with a political edge and her bingo board on microagressions, but her more biographical and poems exploring femininity and sexuality will have a universal appeal. I only hope this collection gets the exposure it deserves. This is a book you can judge by its beautiful cover. It will be released August 7. 2018.

PRAISE

“In poems that are as historically aware as they are forward-thinking, Asghar reminds us with wit, wisdom, and compassion that a truly felt and thoughtfully written poem can be many things at once: a salve, an artifact, a puzzle, a flashlight in the face of imminent darkness, and even a whole home.”—Tarfia Faizullah, author of Registers of Illuminated Villages and Seam

AUTHOR

Fatimah Asghar is a nationally touring poet, performer, educator and writer. Her work has appeared in many journals, including POETRY Magazine, Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets and many others. Her work has been featured on new outlets like PBS, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and others. In 2011 she created Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first Spoken Word Poetry group, REFLEKS, while on a Fulbright studying theater in post-genocidal countries. She is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and a Kundiman Fellow. She is the writer of Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Currently she is an MFA candidate at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan.

Many thanks to NetGalley and One World for providing me with a copy of this work in exchange for an unbiased review.

A beautiful and interesting look at first generation immigrants in America and subsequent alienation in two cultures.

The best word I can think of to describe this collection of poems is raw. The language is direct and, at times, gut punching. I found myself saying “wow” out loud while reading on more than one occasion.

I don’t usually read poetry that often because I find it monotonous after a while, but this collection made me rethink this. Between playing with traditional poetry forms and the direct, non-flowery language, this kept me on my toes.

While Asghar and I share no similarities in terms of culture, religion, or upbringing, there was something so engaging about her phrasing that I felt like I could relate to her words in a way. There are definitely poems in this collection that I will return to in the future. (or perhaps I will return to the full collection since it was such a quick, all-consuming read)

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion:

These poems explore so many themes, such as identity (personal, cultural, sexual, gender), community, the immigrant experience, belonging, experiencing microaggressions, and the far-reaching impact of colonialism, as well as the effect of 9/11 on Muslim Americans. This collection evokes emotion and shares stories. I love the variety of form and the cadence of these poems, but most especially, I love Asghar's voice.

Poetry so personal it is borderline memoir, threading diatribe poetics into those of confessionals, histories, and condemnations. Perfect fusion of rawness and refined lyricism, tightroping between abstraction and realism, thematically orbiting (and sometimes interweaving) issues of sexual and gender identity, western exceptionalism, American xenophobia, and the short-term memory of history. Loses a bit of steam as it goes on and starts stronger than it finishes (tightening up the collection a tick would have helped), but every seeming lull is quickly roundhoused by yet another knockout poem. Bonus points: likely to feature the most perfect line of poetry from 2018:

...but I
live
in a country whose sun is war
we keep rotating around its
warmth
our faces, sun-kissed, each &
every morning.

-From "100 Words on 45's 100 Days"

As a Pakistani, these poems on Partition hit close to home. The writing is raw and open. I would probably be returning to this book every now and then.

It is a must read for anyone who loves poetry and wants insight into aspects of history of the sub-continent.

This powerful collection of poetry gutted me right open, as Fatimah Asghar delves into the brown American experience with precision and insight, interrogating the depth of its low points!

If They Come for Us is a book of poetry by a Pakistani Muslim woman about the ethnic cleansing in Pakistan, known as Partition. Don’t run from poetry this time, this is really good. Really. Good.

This is a gorgeously horrific volume of poetry that uses frank language with an edge, helping the reader understand how difficult this time was and continues to be as a person who is Muslim, an “other” and has a history of death and being a victim of violence.

"Microaggression Bingo" is brilliant. The author has cleverly used this as well as a Mad Libs format to show us how we treat the “other” in our society. Heartbreaking, humorous, and horrific, the backdrop to the author’s poetry is war and division. The theme is repetitive, namely misunderstanding or fearing another because their culture is different.

Asghar examines how hard it is to acclimate and uses such creative wordsmithery to create a thought provoking way to illuminate issues of race, bigotry, and war. "Land Where My Father Died," uses such imagery that cannot help but provoke thought about our values and human rights.

Timely and thoughtful, this will be an award winning volume of poetry. Every one should be required to read this and drink in it’s emotion.
Easily a five star book. Just buy it.

Thank you to the publisher and #NetGalley for a pre-publication ebook in exchange for an honest review.

If They Come for Us is a book of poetry written by a Pakistani Muslim woman. Partition is a common theme (and poem title) throughout.

The poems with non-traditional formats bear mentioning -- Fatimah Asghar has a poem entitled "Microaggression Bingo," after which follows the game board. There's a film treatment, even a crossword format. This is not to suggest the poems in this book are all playful and light-hearted. In fact, they can be edgy, with frank language as she examines issues related to sexuality and cultural expectations.

Asghar examines themes of what it is to (try to) acclimate, how it is to appear as an "other" in a new country as well as a stranger to your family, how to wrestle with a history of violence.

Several poems captured my attention with their creative wordplay and had me returning to them to soak them in longer. They included titles like "A Starless Sky is a Joy Too," "Land Where My Father Died," "National Geographic," "Look, I'm Not Good at Eating Chicken," "How'd Your Parents Die Again?", and "Super Orphan."

With lines like "It was the summer the TV told me I was dangerous & I tried to learn Spanish so I could pretend I was the other kind of other," it's no wonder the author has received acclaim for her work.

Fatimah Asghar's If They Come for Us is a raw, emotional, richly constructed poetic composition. Fatimah's moving and poignant poems bust open the hurt and scars left from the Partition of India. Fatimah offers her insight and experience of her ancestor's history, her lack of parental support/guidance, and questions of sexuality. Though at times uncomfortable, the reader connects to Fatimah's heart wrenching experiences of growing up with the scars of racial insensitivity, struggle and finding' one's place (and voice) in today's world.

I really liked this book pf poetry. The poems made me think and feel at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book, and I'm looking forward to reading more poems by Fatimah Asghar

Fatimah Asghar redefines poetry in her full-length debut, If They Come For Us, interweaving traditional free verse and innovative forms as she explores what it means to be orphan, to be immigrant, to be human. I know that that’s a bold statement but, in my estimation, this collection is one of the most important books of 2018, and one that will lay the foundation for experimental poetry in the coming years. Asghar has a strong reputation for challenging norms, and for intelligent, sharp writing, and still the poems shattered me again and again.

Less than a third of the way through the book, I wrote that I had never had to set down a book in stunned silence more than Asghar’s. I read and reread poems. I interrupted class to share them with students. Quite simply, I lost all professionalism and succumbed to experiencing If They Come For Us on a purely human level. Even now, the objectivity of a third-person review evades me. I cannot be objective about this book. Each time I return to it, I am a young reader again, falling in love with the inexplicable power of language.

*Full review pending publication of the book.*

I absolutely devoured this book. I tend to be skeptical about most books of poetry, especially after the disaster that was 'The Princess Saves Herself in This One'. But this book is raw and genuine and above all, serves as a voice for someone who was voiceless, and for those who will never speak again.

These poems were a heartbreaking beacon of light in a sea of modern poetry books with no meaning.

This is a breathtaking collection, overflowing with rage and pain and healing and joy. Asghar tells a powerful story of being a Pakistani Muslim orphan in America, coming of age surrounded by love but feeling untethered. She grapples with violent histories, with a lack of memory of her family and her homeland, and with racial/religious micro- and macroaggressions. Her poetry is wholly original and her unique voice resonates throughout the collection. I love the way she (literally) turns the traditional poetry format upside-down. This is an absolute must-read.

If They Come for Us by Fatima Asghar. A book of poetry which is not my usual type of reading material. I decided to give it a try for National Poetry Reading Month. It was a interesting book with poems that made you think from a place not many know much about.

This is really a powerful collection of poetry. I think my favorite poems from the collection were For Peshawar, Partition, 100 Words on 45's 100 Days, and Land Where My Father Died. There is also a lot of innovative techniques I haven't seen utilized in a lot of poetry, such as bingo boards, floor plans and crosswords. Seek this one out.