Yahia lababidi biography of barack
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Reconciliation seems a far and distant prospect for humanity, if not a total impossibility.
“The one who hates themselves, sees that hated self in everyone they meet"
In times like these, we can't afford to be consumed by our hopelessness and our melancholy in this reality. “It is my passionate wish that, in the short meditations found in Epics, readers will encounter thoughts that might begin to liberate and heal their wounded selves, and in turn, our wounded world,” he muses.
Also, as a citizen of our increasingly polarised world, I feel called upon to use my art, in some way, to try and alleviate the mounting fear and loathing, directed at those of different backgrounds.”
“Cynicism’s knowingness cheats itself out of true knowing"
Where Epics Fail may be just a collection of words, but language is the engine that drives our consciousness.
Yahia Lababidi's latest offering, a collection of sayings and meditations conceived over a period of ten years, may prove promising in the struggle against this status quo.
Today, he is an internationally published aphorist, poet, and essayist whose work has appeared in such publications as World Literature Today, Cimarron Review, AGNI, Rain Taxi, Philosophy Now, and The Best American Poetry. He is also the author of two celebrated aphorism collections, Signposts to Elsewhere (Hay House, 2019) and Where Epics Fail (Unbound, 2018), the latter launched at Oxford University.
His Egyptian upbringing exposed him to our timeless and pervasive amsal shaabiyya (proverbs and sayings), which spurred his interest in a very social form of poetry and philosophy. If his words manage to capture enough of our imaginations and aspirations, we may just be able to heal these wounds and lift ourselves out of our current melancholy.
“Take two opposites, connect the dots, and you have a straight line”
'Where Epics Fail' is currently a work in progress and will be published by UK-based crowdfunding platform Unbound, in parternship with Penguin Random House.
To date, Lababidi’s writing has been translated into Arabic, Slovak, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Turkish.
Otherwise, his work appears in several anthologies, including: Geary’s Guide to the World's Great Aphorists as well as the best-selling US college textbook, Literature: an Introduction to Reading and Writing (10th edition).
Drawing from his own experience, he says, “as an immigrant and a Muslim and a writer in Trump’s bewildering America, I sense this peace mission with renewed urgency. Lababidi believes it is the duty of all poets to become peace-makers through their art.
Yahia Lababidi
Yahia Lababidi began writing aphorisms as a teenager in Egypt thirty years ago.
This is what first inspired Lababidi’s love for language, which began his journey as a man of letters.
"A good listener is one who helps us overhear ourselves"
His upcoming book, Where Epics Fail, will be the second time his aphorisms are featured in a major publication. Sometimes it just takes a belief in a phrase or a proverb to guide us to better times.
By visiting this link, you can help support Yahia Lababidi in finishing his book by making a pledge, or you can pre-order and receive a discount using this code: yahia17
Photo: Chris Rice Cooper Blog
Since 9/11, much of the world has been thrown into turmoil.
Lababidi's short utterings have also come out before in various literary journals and anthologies. Each aphorism offers a little piece of wisdom to better ourselves with, in ways that make epic changes to our lives. Since Trump’s ascension to the US presidency, Lababidi feels that his mission has never been more important. Online arguments, where the art of debate has now become totally extinct, expose the worst of humanity.