Something about Living
Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poignant collection of poetry published by University of Akron Press in 2024. This edition spans 81 pages and is presented in English. The work explores the complex interplay between joy and the persistent challenges of protest, reflecting on themes of loss, grief, and the human experience amid violence and colonialism.
Readers will find that Tuffaha’s poems intricately weave together the historical suffering of Palestine with the everyday struggles of life, capturing both the beauty and the harsh realities of existence. The collection serves as a witness to collective experiences, emphasizing the importance of kindness and community in the face of adversity. Through her elegant language, Tuffaha invites readers to engage with the radical nature of love and the resilience required to navigate a fractured world.
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2025 ALA Notable Book
Winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry
Winner of the 2022 Akron Poetry Prize
It’s nearly impossible to write poetry that holds the human desire for joy and the insistent agitations of protest at the same time, but Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s gorgeous and wide-ranging new collection Something About Living does just that. Her poems interweave Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence. Khalaf Tuffaha’s elegant poems sing the fractured songs of Diaspora while remaining clear-eyed to the cause of the fracturing: the multinational hubris of colonialism and greed.
This collection is her witness to our collective unraveling, vowel by vowel, syllable by syllable. “Let the plural be a return of us” the speaker of “On the Thirtieth Friday We Consider Plurals” says and this plurality is our tenuous humanity and the deep need to hang on to kindness in our communities. In these poems, Khalaf Tuffaha reminds us that love isn’t an idea; it is a radical act. Especially for those who, like this poet, travel through the world vigilantly, but steadfastly remain heart first. –Adrian Matejka, author of Somebody Else Sold the World
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