Join us to celebrate Santa Cruz poet Farnaz Fatemi’s new book of poetry Sister Tongue. This event will be held at the Tannery Arts Center during the First Friday Art Walk and will be open to the public.

• 6:00-6:30 - Reception

• 6:30-7:00 - Poetry reading and discussion of the book with poet Farnaz Fatemi

• 7:00-7:30 - Book signing

“In Sister Tongue, Fatemi shines gorgeous light on the liminal space between languages, bearing witness to the joy and longing that accompany every act of translation.”—Tracy K. Smith, from the Foreword

The poems in Sister Tongue explore negative spaces—the distance between twin sisters, between lovers, between Farsi and English, between the poet’s upbringing in California and her family in Iran. This space between vibrates with loss and longing, arcing with tension. Fatemi’s poetry delves into the intricacies of the relational space between people, the depth of ancestral roots, and the visceral memories that shimmer beyond the reach of words.

Language is one of the origins of the poet’s displacement and the evidence of her non-belonging—in both Farsi- and English-speaking communities. The long lyric essay which makes up the spine of this book plumbs years of wordlessness and a journey of reconciliation, as Fatemi asks how her tongue might be a passport to the otherwise inaccessible territories within a self.