Hedy Habra is a poet, artist, and essayist. During this ArtBreak, she will discuss and read selections from her recently-published poetry collection, Or Did You Ever See the Other Side? (Press 53, 2023). The ekphrastic poems in this volume focus on the feminine and are mainly inspired by contemporary and surrealist women artists from different ethnicities and nationalities. Most of the poems explore women’s voices as well as social and political issues.

Habra has authored four collections of poetry. The Taste of the Earth won the Silver Nautilus Book Award, Tea in Heliopolis won the USA Best Book Award, and Under Brushstrokes was an International Book Award finalist. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention. Her book of criticism is Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa. A twenty-one-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, her multilingual work appears in numerous journals and anthologies.