7/7/26
leena aboutaleb’s debut collection is a magnetic mourning, suspended in the threads of eternity. Lush and poignant, THALASSA is a love song of misery and grief, tracing the poet’s steps as she dives into the Underworld in search of her brother. THALASSA is a map of the seen and unseen realms. ‘Like teethbones, I fail to forget you,’ aboutaleb bemoans, ‘I knew you. I knew you.’ Dreamlike, her elegy lights the passage of despair and hope as the poet collapses the ephermal threshold between the dead and the living. Grief is a sea, and leena aboutaleb shows us how to build a boat to find our way home.
leena aboutaleb is an Egyptian and Palestinian writer who asks you to commit to the Palestinian liberation struggle. She is the author of THALASSA forthcoming with Game Over Books. Her pamphlet, Expeditions of Projection, was released in 2023 (VIBE). Her film, ‘Oracle,’ co-produced with Youssef ElNahas debuted in Venice, 2025. She is a Brooklyn Poets fellow, a Kundiman fellow and Tin House scholar. Read her work at www.leenaboutaleb.onl.
7/7/26
leena aboutaleb’s debut collection is a magnetic mourning, suspended in the threads of eternity. Lush and poignant, THALASSA is a love song of misery and grief, tracing the poet’s steps as she dives into the Underworld in search of her brother. THALASSA is a map of the seen and unseen realms. ‘Like teethbones, I fail to forget you,’ aboutaleb bemoans, ‘I knew you. I knew you.’ Dreamlike, her elegy lights the passage of despair and hope as the poet collapses the ephermal threshold between the dead and the living. Grief is a sea, and leena aboutaleb shows us how to build a boat to find our way home.
leena aboutaleb is an Egyptian and Palestinian writer who asks you to commit to the Palestinian liberation struggle. She is the author of THALASSA forthcoming with Game Over Books. Her pamphlet, Expeditions of Projection, was released in 2023 (VIBE). Her film, ‘Oracle,’ co-produced with Youssef ElNahas debuted in Venice, 2025. She is a Brooklyn Poets fellow, a Kundiman fellow and Tin House scholar. Read her work at www.leenaboutaleb.onl.
