Poems for Listeners

This Global Read with author Naomi Shihab Nye was held December 15, 2020
 

Watch a recording of the program here

There is a place to stand where you can see so many lights you forget you are one of them.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye, “Spruce Street, Berkeley”
 

Acclaimed and award-winning poet, teacher, and National Book Award finalist Naomi Shihab Nye’s uncommon and unforgettable voice offers readers peace, humor, inspiration, and solace. This volume of almost one hundred original poems is a stunning and engaging tribute to the diverse voices past and present that comfort us, compel us, lead us, and give us hope. 

Voices in the Air is a collection of almost one hundred original poems written by the award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye in honor of the artists, writers, poets, historical figures, ordinary people, and diverse luminaries from past and present who have inspired her. Full of words of encouragement, solace, and hope, this collection offers a message of peace and empathy.

Voices in the Air celebrates the inspirational people who strengthen and motivate us to create, to open our hearts, and to live rewarding and graceful lives. With short informational bios about the influential figures behind each poem, and a transcendent introduction by the poet, this is a collection to cherish, read again and again, and share with others.

About the Author

Naomi Shihab Nye is the current Young People’s Poet Laureate. She is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes. Her books of poetry include 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, Red Suitcase, Words Under the Words, Fuel, and You & Yours (a bestselling poetry book of 2006). 

Her recent novel for children, The Turtle of Oman, was chosen as both a Best Book of 2014 by the Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. Naomi Shihab Nye is Professor of Creative Writing - Poetry at Texas State University. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

About the Host

Muna Saleh is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE), former Elementary and Secondary school teacher, and the author of “Stories We Live and Grow By: (Re)Telling Our Experiences as Muslim Mothers and Daughters.” She has grown up in Edmonton/Amiskwaciwâskahikan, on Treaty Six lands. 

She is blessed to mother three amazing humans who teach her what love looks like in practice every single day.

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