JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The National Book Awards are tonight. These prizes are a big deal in American literary circles. You could even call them the Oscars of books. And there's something interesting happening in the poetry category. There are two collections vying for the award that are trying to give voice to Palestinians. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: Yes, technically, Fady Joudah and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha are competing against each other tonight, but there's no rivalry here.
So what's the vibe here? Is it like Kobe versus LeBron...
LENA KHALAF TUFFAHA: (Laughter).
LIMBONG: ...Or is it like a friendly competition?
FADY JOUDAH: (Laughter).
LIMBONG: What do we...
JOUDAH: None of that, I think.
LIMBONG: That's Joudah.
KHALAF TUFFAHA: No one has ever accused me of being that tall, so that's just not (laughter)...
LIMBONG: And that's Tuffaha. Her collection "Something About Living" is a broad historical look at Palestinian life. By comparison, Fady Joudah's collection, which doesn't have a name, just an ellipsis inside two brackets, is a more introspective and personal reaction to the current war in Gaza. In his poem "Mimesis," the speaker watches the death toll rise on the news, when a baby frog comes into the house. Here's Joudah, reading.
JOUDAH: (Reading) My son was watching. Gently, patiently, I followed it on my knees with shattered heart and plastic bag, coaxed it, caught it, released it into the yard and started to cry.
LIMBONG: Both poets say there's been a lack of Palestinian voices in the national discourse since Israel began their response to Hamas' attacks on October 7 more than a year ago now. And they say having two poetry books be finalists for the National Book Award is a small corrective. Here's Tuffaha.
KHALAF TUFFAHA: Yes, there is a little bit of a moment, and it's always wonderful to take that opportunity and show up and speak. But it's important for Palestinians not just to be a moment.
LIMBONG: At last year's National Book Awards ceremony, a number of the finalists made a collective statement calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, read by writer Aaliyah Bilal.
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AALIYAH BILAL: Accepting the human dignity of all parties, knowing that further bloodshed does nothing to secure lasting peace in the region. Thank you.
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JOUDAH: Retrospectively, we can say that it was a moment of common decency, but it also has no skin in the game.
LIMBONG: What Joudah would like to see is a more serious discussion by his fellow writers of boycotting cultural institutions. Both Joudah and Tuffaha signed an open letter a few weeks back, pledging to not work with Israeli publishers, festivals and literary agencies that, quote, "are complicit in violating Palestinian rights." A few big names in the literary world signed along too - Sally Rooney, Percival Everett, Junot Diaz. There was an opposing opening letter, signed by writers such as Lee Child, Adam Gopnik and David Mamet, that called boycotts, quote, "illiberal and dangerous," and said that writers should be about open dialogue. Here's Tuffaha.
KHALAF TUFFAHA: There is a time for argument and there's a time for action. There is a moment to draw a line and say, you can't keep having conversations with the person pointing the barrel of a gun at your head.
LIMBONG: In her poem, "Letter To June Jordan In September," Tuffaha writes to the Black poet and activist who wrote in the '80s and '90s in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and it ends like this.
KHALAF TUFFAHA: (Reading) Some days, poems are scrawled on pieces of cardboard and carried on our shoulders at the protest like martyrs. Here, I should say something about hope. Here, I should say something about living.
LIMBONG: I asked both of them about the efficacy of poetry in times like these, how this conflict has been going on for decades, and can poetry really change anything? And Joudah gave kind of a funny answer, saying other types of writing don't seem to be changing anything either.
JOUDAH: So might as well free your mind from the language that really dominates it, through poetry.
LIMBONG: Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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