“What is striking across the readings offered is the eclectic multiplicity of cultural sources and theoretical lines woven into Connolly’s intellectually agile accounts of each already multiple œuvre . . . Connolly’s study excels, opening up fresh opportunities for transcultural and cosmopolitan creative practice and reflection, as well as empathically critical intercultural understanding.” —Modern Language Review

“Connolly’s interlingual, intermedial, interfaith approaches to poetry throughout this volume are a valuable contribution to scholarship in North African literature and so much more: this book will speak volumes to anyone of any linguistic and cultural background who is curious about poetry and poetics, and anyone interested in the winding paths cultural agents take toward self-determination and articulation of community in North Africa and beyond.” —Journal of North African Studies

“A demanding and rewarding book. Its greatest strength lies in its insistence that poetry matters, not as a marginal genre but as a mode of thinking that interrupts dominant narratives of nation, history, and critique. Connolly’s work compels readers to rethink the contours of Maghrebi literary history and the place of poetry within it. The book interrupts rather than reassures, and in so doing, enacts the poetic logic it seeks to defend.” —H-France

“What makes Thomas Connolly’s book radically new is his focus on the poetic production of French-speaking writers from the Maghreb. The originality of this study is that it allows us to read works anew that we thought were ‘classified’ or saturated, and to create the space of a site that is capable of expressing its idiosyncrasy. What is certain is that we are dealing here with a border text—un texte-frontière—which will be a landmark through which we will have to go to fully read and teach poetic literature.” —Réda Bensmaïa, Brown University

“Connolly demonstrates mastery of several poetic traditions: Arabic, European, French, and Francophone. Erudite and critically creative, this book helps develop new ways of reading and interpreting North African Francophone poetry in comparative perspective, delicately transgressing certain limits of interpretation within the field.” —Maya Boutaghou, University of Virginia