Episode 82 with Sara Elkamel, Passionate and Profound Poet with an Artist‘s Soul and a Journalist‘s Eye for Detail

Show Notes from Episode 82 and Links to Sara Elkamel’s Work

 

        On Episode 82 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete has the pleasure to speak with Sara Elkamel, poet and journalist, about her passion for the form, her work with surrealism, and her eye for detail. The two delve into three of Sara’s profound and lush poems, with Sara generously sharing the background and thought process in creating the work.  

 

Sara Elkamel is a poet and journalist living between her hometown, Cairo, and New York City. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University, and is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at New York University, where she teaches in the undergraduate Creative Writing Program.

 

Elkamel's poems have appeared in The Common, Michigan Quarterly Review, Four Way Review, The Boiler, Memorious, wildness, Nimrod International Journal, The Rumpus, Jet Fuel Review, etc. Her work has also been featured as part of the anthologies Best New Poets 2020, Best of the Net 2020, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me, and 20.35 Africa: Vol. 2. She was named a 2020 Gregory Djanikian Scholar by The Adroit Journal, and a finalist in Narrative Magazine's 30 Below Contest in the same year. Elkamel’s debut chapbook “Field of No Justice” will be published by the African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books in 2021.

 

Elkamel has designed and facilitated (often collaboratively) a number of creative writing workshops in art spaces and cultural intuitions in Cairo, Alexandria and Amman, Jordan, including at the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS), The Townhouse Gallery, Medrar for Contemporary Art, and at the Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation (MMAG).

 

 

Sara Elkamel's Personal Website

 

Interview with Washington Square: Sara Elkamel on Surrealism, Myth, and Gender in “Field of No Justice”

 

Sara Elkamel’s “Heaven”

 

Four Way Review-Three Poems by Sara Elkamel

 

At about 2:40, Sara discusses what she is working on currently, as she has recently returned from Cairo after more than a year; she discusses how a collection of poems becomes a thesis when poetry is not inherently ordered

 

At about 6:30, Sara talks about her childhood in Cairo and her relationship with the written word, including her love of the book fair (!) and some early introductions to symbolism and 

 

At about 10:30, Pete asks Sara about the connections between the familiarity of the US upon Sara’s starting to live here and what she read in Egypt about the US

 

At about 12:00, Sara responds to Pete’s question about the influence of the Koran on her writing

 

At about 13:00, Sara responds to Pete’s question of how Arabic as a language lend itself to poetry, as seen through the proud traditions of poetry written in the language 

 

At about 15:10, Sara relates a fitting Anne Carson quote

 

At about 15:50, Sara discusses some transformative texts that she read as she got older, including “A Little Sugar” from Hussein Jelaad in Beirut 89 and Alan Ziegler’s class, where she read formative work from Ben Lerner and Carl Phillips, as well as work from Anne Carson-a gift from her boss 

 

At about 19:25, Sara discusses her personal views on form, as she writes prose poetry for the most part, as well as form in contemporary poetry

 

At about 22:40, Sara glowingly explains her philosophy and process of editing    

 

At about 26:05, Sara explains her views of “deciphering poetry”

 

At about 28:45, Pete quotes Sara from a previous interview and asks her what she means about the connection between poetry and “collage”

 

At about 31:35, Pete and Sara discuss “Field of No Justice” and the idea of the speaker as the poet

 

At about 32:50, Sara gives background on some themes and references/inspiration for “Field of No Justice”

 

At about 34:40, Pete highlights some intriguing lines from the above poem and asks Sara about her use of the bird as motif

 

At about 35:50, Pete asks Sara about surrealism and its connection to Egypt in both “older times” and in contemporary times

 

At about 38:20, Sara details Wadi Rum and its natural beauty and her connection to it, used as muse for her poem “The Language of the Body”

 

At about 39:25, Sara reads “The Language of the Body”

 

At about 41:25, Pete asks Sara about the poem-its repetition and “sinning out in the open,” for one, and Sara talks about the poem as a response to a prompt from Professor Catherine Barnett and more of its genesis

 

At about 45:20, Sara reads “Heaven”

 

At about 46:05, Sara responds to Pete’s question, in response to the poem “Heaven” about challenges in writing shorter pieces and Pete recounts some profound lines as he and Sara discuss specific word and craft choices

 

At about 50:45, Sara talks about future projects and her impressive editing process

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I’m excited to share Episode 83 with Larry Strauss on October 5. I hope you can tune in, as I talk to the novelist, teacher, student advocate and freelance writer who has been published in USA Today and many other prestigious publications. Larry’s newest novel, Light Man, is an engrossing read and is out in November 2021. 

The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.