The Scar Saloon

Sholeh Wolpe

In a world where cultures and religions are recklessly facing off, Sholeh Wolpé writes careful poems that cast a light on some of what we all hold in common.

— Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate (2001-2003)

Sholeh Wolpé's poems are political, satirical, and unflinching in the face of war, tyranny and loss. Talismanic and alchemical, they attempt to transmute experience into the magic of the imagined. But they also dare to be tender and funny lyrical moments.

— Chris Abani, author of Graceland, and Becoming Abigail

The Scar Saloon is a humane and compassionate book in which horror is balanced by love, pain by pleasure, denial by sensuality, seriousness with humor. Many of the poems are set in the Middle East, but Sholeh Wolpé is clearly a poet of the world.

— Charles Harper Webb, author of Liver, and Tulip Farms and Leper Colonies