Poets like Solmaz Sharif and Aria Aber have experimented with incorporating their native languages into their English poems, but Almontaser takes this practice to a new level ... While Almontaser’s hybrid poetics enriches this work immensely, the visual feast of scripts, languages, and cultures generated by these poems yields a reading experience that is at once more political and more personal. Readers will connect with the young woman at the center of this collection, who wears her 'city’s hatred as hijab.'
... performs a paradoxical feat. At 101 pages, it’s a long book; many of the poems are on the long side; and many of the lines are long. Yet there is no clutter or crowding here – only an exuberant fullness, such an abundance of captivating images and turns of phrase that it is hard to take everything in. Almontaser’s verbal richness doesn’t stall or cloy; rather, her bold poems convey the spaciousness afforded by freedom and truth-telling. They keep moving, and we try to keep pace ... Almontaser’s knack for titles suggests the range of her subject matter ... In these confident, capacious, generous poems, which face tragedy without sentimentality or bitterness, there are echoes of poets such as Ishion Hutchinson, Erica Dawson and Emily Skaja (and of the poet whose name graces the award this remarkable book recently won: Walt Whitman), but Almontaser’s poetic voice is very much her own.
... a vast and celebratory exploration of language, family, and diasporic identity ... The price of diaspora is always a certain kind of exile, but The Wild Fox of Yemen espouses neither sentimental nostalgia nor doomed isolation. Carefully rendered and expertly voiced, it asserts both the contradictions and the inherent dignity of its chosen subjects with equal force and insistence. These poems overflow with an abundance of life—poignant and melancholic, sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious, and always filled with beauty.
At times, the language and the structure seemed to intentionally confuse the reader, though that might’ve been Almontaser’s purpose. By allowing her thoughts to flow freely, she challenges the reader to look beyond traditional writing styles and reiterates the power of the pen by demonstrating that language cannot be restricted. Complexity is in its nature, with multitudes of meanings and interpretations. Essentially, this poetry collection is an ode to the Arabic language, whereby the author divulges what it means to be a Yemeni-American Muslim woman ... It was interesting to see how Almontaser balanced the duality of the narrator’s identity, the push and pull between Yemen and America, through the lens of language ... The collection ends on a confident and self-aware tone, returning to where it began by questioning and navigating the different aspects of identity ... highlights the power of language and the endless worlds contained in its words and discussions of the internal struggles to define identity. From Almontaser’s original style to the usage of two different mediums, Arabic and English, I was overwhelmed by the intrinsic complexity and flexibility that language entails. Almontaser’s love for the Arabic language is apparent in each poem ... brings out the sly, shy, lost fox in all of us, giving us all a chance to embrace every aspect of our identity and being, thus, embodied in language.
... [a] brilliant debut ... The beautifully crafted poems can feel like mini-histories, intricate narratives spanning only a few pages. They overflow with richness and opportunities for interpretation, shifting between Arabic and English; yet they are self-contained and pointed as a missile ... Almontaser is cunning in how she exposes the strength of overlapping languages. She’s also incensed; she also handles storytelling, family history, with grace. The Wild Fox of Yemen turns language into its own character, a fact of daily life we take for granted.
When you couple the short words and sentences with the frequent alliteration, the poem sounds like a rallying call; it’s difficult to read Almontaser’s words without wanting to join her in arms against whatever weak-willed versions of ourselves hide in the bushes. Both the hunted and the huntress, Almontaser uses this power dynamic to embody the war the speaker wages against her younger self as well as the one that wages between Yemeni and American identities ... In her struggle to find words, Almontaser has created a new language ... Like the collection’s title animal, The Wild Fox of Yemen is a shapeshifter, a revolt against forced binaries, a refusal to be fed lies that cause so many others to starve.
Each Arabic word acts like a tiny perforation through which, as you translate, light pours. (At times, she offers Arabic script as well.) What is fascinating about the decision not to supply translation is that it turns the English-speaking reader into a foreigner. We become, at several removes, go-betweens as we learn about life in Yemen, its beauty and its suffering ... The immersion in words – she never under-writes – is a varied adventure ... Some of the most powerful moments in this book, illustrated with sober black-and-white photos of (one guesses) her parents and her childhood self, explore her relationship with Arabic and its elusiveness.
... a wonderfully crafted portrait of Muslim womanhood and the country and people of Yemen ... a standout gift for metaphor, wordplay, and storytelling ... Captivating and beautifully written, this collection will appeal to a wide variety of audiences, and those not as familiar with Yemeni history or the Arabic language will assuredly be inspired to learn more. Recommended for all collections.
