{"product_id":"the-afterlife-of-sweetness-poems-paperback-2","title":"The Afterlife of Sweetness: Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJaia Hamid Bashir\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJaia Hamid Bashir's \u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Sweetness\u003c\/i\u003e searches for beauty in waste and for mercy in defiance of a Muslim American girlhood. Haunted by lost lovers, Islamic theology, Hindu and Greek epics, and fractured selves, these poems trace the erotic contours of belief and the hungers that shape our becoming. They move among abandoned mining towns, gas stations, Qur'anic caves, suburbia, the American West, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art-- braiding myth with memory and eros with rot to dissect what remains after the beloved has vanished. Dogs, oysters, deer, goats, and maggots appear as traveling companions; neon signs hum beside Lorca, Celan, and the Mahabharata\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e Throughout, Bashir exhorts us to confront sites of both the profane and the sacred and asks: How do we endure love, dissipation, and time? Recalling the work of Kaveh Akbar, Frank Stanford, and Rumi, and Jorie Graham, \u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Sweetness\u003c\/i\u003e is both pilgrimage and detour, never veering from its insistence that holiness is not elsewhere but here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eJaia Hamid Bashir was born to South Asian immigrant artists. Her work has appeared in \u003ci\u003ePoetry Magazine, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe American Poetry Review, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e Virginia Quarterly Review, \u003c\/i\u003e and elsewhere. She has received numerous prize recognitions. She is the author of the chapbook \u003ci\u003eDesire\/Halves.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Afterlife of Sweetness\u003c\/i\u003e is her debut full-length collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 88\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.21 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e February 27, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47582716592349,"sku":"9780814259719","price":20.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/9867\/8237\/files\/w_fHnBT8SV9780814259719_b08c84a8-761c-44ba-a964-51fe58adef1b.webp?v=1773583279","url":"https:\/\/handfulofbooks.com\/products\/the-afterlife-of-sweetness-poems-paperback-2","provider":"Handful of Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}