Reflections on Displacement in Three Parts
Through a series of three dispatches, Menna Saber Abo Salem recounts her experiences as a university student navigating ongoing displacement. The series, Reflections on Displacement In Three Parts, traces practices of resilience that have emerged for her in this ongoing crisis, through interwoven vignettes, poetry and photographs. The work meditates on the university as a dual form of shelter, as both physical sanctuary in crisis and symbolic locus of writerly production as resistance.
Letter to the reader
Dear reader,
I am writing this letter to you after a journey of displacement that has lasted nearly a month. For a month and a half, I lived in a makeshift tent, my heart filled with longing and nostalgia for my destroyed home. In that tent, I wrote more than I ever had before.
I’m honored you are reading my words, as I had thought the world blind, and that you are listening to my marginalized voice, as I had believed our world deaf. I try to escape this painful reality through my writing. Perhaps, I have found salvation through writing, and perhaps, you are now escaping this disturbing reality by reading our words. Lately, I have been wondering what it feels like to sip coffee in peace, read your favorite book, and sit on your balcony with birds chirping nearby…
I would like to experience that feeling, and perhaps, you are experiencing it now. Tell me, what does it feel like?
I believe the genocide in Gaza has produced a new generation of writers, and that writing is our path to salvation and an escape into our dreams. I write every day to loosen the suffocation of my soul, in the hopes of one day finding peace.
There are no words to express my gratitude to you for choosing to read my zine, and I hope we can have a cup of coffee together one day as we gaze at the same sky, the same moon, and annoy others with our endless chatter and rants about the world around us…
I won’t talk any longer; I’ll leave you now to read my words and fly away to another world full of poetry and stories that I’ve lived through and events that I’ll never forget.
I wish you all the best,
Menna Saber Abo Salem
Sample Image and Text
Write a Review
This zine has yet to receive a review from a published author. We ask members of the literary community to lend the strength of their voices to our authors. If you are an established author wishing to provide a review, email us at coastallinespress@gmail.com to receive a digital or hard copy.
About the Author
Menna Saber Abo Salem is a translator, audio content presenter, podcaster, aspiring writer, and poet who was born in 2004. Through her work, she brings life to her voice and the voices of those the world has forgotten.
Get Your Copy
Zines are available by donation, with all profits going directly to the authors.
To receive a zine:
Click on the author’s name to be directed to their personal fundraiser and make your donation.
Email proof of donation to coastallinespress@gmail.com.
For a digital zine (PDF): we’ll send the file to your inbox.
For a print zine (hard copy): include in your email the number of copies you’d like and your delivery address, and we’ll send them by post.
For translated editions: inquire if the zine is available in your language. Some zines have English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, or Spanish translations.