Emirati poet Afra Atiq gets raw and vulnerable in her first book

Of Palm Trees and Skies centres around themes of identity and heritage, blending traditional Arabic forms with contemporary expression

Emirati poet Afra Atiq's new collection blends elements of Arabic and English poetry and language. Photo: ELF Publishing

Afra Atiq has been a powerful poetic force in the UAE's literary scene since she started performing publicly in 2015. Gaining popularity for her commanding presence and uninhibited performances as a spoken word poet, she has won multiple awards, including the Abu Dhabi Music and Art Foundation's creativity award, and was named best performer by the culture and arts initiative Rooftop Rhythms.

Less than 10 years after her first public performance, Atiq has released her first poetry collection in book form. “I feel so grateful, it's been a long time coming,” Atiq tells The National. “It's such a special moment. I feel really amazing, but a tiny bit terrified, because it's new. But overall, I feel blessed and grateful.”

Titled Of Palm Trees and Skies, the collection is published by the independent UAE house ELF Publishing and contains 26 poems. They delve into themes about identity and culture and have been created through Atiq’s spirited and distinct style, blending traditional Arabic forms with contemporary expression.

“A lot of it is self-reflective, a lot of it is about heritage and legacy and life and family,” she says. “It's a collection of all of these things which, in some poems, intersect and in some they're separate topics. But it’s a work of so much heart.”

Atiq has performed in venues across the world, from Louvre Abu Dhabi to Dubai’s Opera House and the London Book Fair. She and her audience are used to enjoying her work on stage as opposed to reading it on the page. This has been a challenging but exciting experience, she says.

“I'm used to being on stages,” she says. “I'm used to doing live performances and I'm used to doing inflections and pauses and things like that – to let go of that was really difficult,” she says. “But what I've learnt is that my poems also work on a page. I really have to thank my support system and the publishers for helping me realise this. It doesn't change the process of creating poetry but it was extremely challenging to step out of that live performance focus and into a page focus.”

Curating which poems made it to the collection was an exercise in self-reflection and a new way to look at her past work. Some of the poems in the book have been performed previously, gaining a new life in book form. One standout is Sheryan Al Hayat. The poem is inspired by a conversation Atiq had with her father as they were walking through the historic neighbourhood of Al Shindagha in Dubai. He was recounting stories of his time as a teacher in Al Ahmadiya school in the 1970s. Written in both Arabic and English, the poem, which was presented at the Sikka Art and Design Fair in February 2024, can be read in several ways.

“What's really special about Sheryan Al Hayat is that it's a bilingual poem written in three parts,” she says. “Each part functions as its own poem but, together, they also function as one poem,” she says. “The poem can be read left to right and right to left and middle right and middle left.

Another challenge for Atiq in bringing the collection to life was laying out her personal experiences. She is open, raw and vulnerable. “I've left a little piece of myself in these pages and in each one of these poems,” she says. “It is difficult to do, but the beauty of literature and the beauty of poetry, I think, lies in that vulnerability.”

Embracing vulnerability, she adds, has been part of her growth as poet. “In the beginning of my poetry career, looking at the work in retrospect, I know that for a long time I was hiding from that sense of vulnerability,” she says. “When I look back at the poems now, I think, 'OK where is Afra? Where are you in these poems? Where is your voice?'

“I learnt quickly that vulnerability is not weakness – vulnerability is often what makes a poem a poem. It has been a journey and a challenge to learn, to navigate that vulnerability. And it has been one of the biggest life lessons.”