A delight of dream-logic, old and new mythologies, intimacies, hallucinatory sciences. I will read anything Maya Salameh writes. Mermaid Theory is awash with newnesses, with wonder. —Safia Elhillo
Every sentence in these poems is an opportunity to see something differently, to astonish. —Victoria Chang
From Syria to the house party, there is no landscape Maya Salameh cannot paint with rigorous spirit, delectable lyric, and a fierce poetics all her own. Mermaid Theory breathes the wonder of myth into the poet’s witnessing.... a book that demands to be read aloud with friends, a book that feels a warm room where your best girls are waiting for you to arrive. —Danez Smith
Formally daring and politically incisive, Mermaid Theory reckons with water as history, as present, as divinity, as desire, as fear. This is a poet who sings from the river to the sea. Maya Salameh is a poet who knows that to write is to "sing until the empire is over." —Chen Chen
Mermaid Theory is luscious and lilting, softly chaotic and fierce. I savored every word. Gorgeous libidinal energy radiates off every page of this exquisite collection. —Jasbir Puar
Every sentence in these poems is an opportunity to see something differently, to astonish. —Victoria Chang
From Syria to the house party, there is no landscape Maya Salameh cannot paint with rigorous spirit, delectable lyric, and a fierce poetics all her own. Mermaid Theory breathes the wonder of myth into the poet’s witnessing.... a book that demands to be read aloud with friends, a book that feels a warm room where your best girls are waiting for you to arrive. —Danez Smith
Formally daring and politically incisive, Mermaid Theory reckons with water as history, as present, as divinity, as desire, as fear. This is a poet who sings from the river to the sea. Maya Salameh is a poet who knows that to write is to "sing until the empire is over." —Chen Chen
Mermaid Theory is luscious and lilting, softly chaotic and fierce. I savored every word. Gorgeous libidinal energy radiates off every page of this exquisite collection. —Jasbir Puar
