Souad Labbize speaks in the name of all women who leave their homelands in order to affirm their independence.

Souad Labbize is a poet of love and exile. Born in Algeria, she lived for years in Tunisia before crossing the Mediterranean to France, where she can live as she chooses and speak in the name of all women who leave their homelands in order to affirm their independence. This introduction to the poet’s work brings together two of the collections she has published in France: Drafts of Love is a linked sequence of love poems that together form the narrative of a relationship between two women, not from the beginning to the end but to a pause, while Bindle of Exile tells us ＂how to leave the country/lightweight.＂ In her brief but concise poems, Souad Labbize has condensed great passion and an unyielding commitment to truth, freedom and justice.

Poetry, History, African & African American Studies, LGBTQ+ Studies, Women’s Studies.