What poets changed the way you thought about writing?
The one course that changed the way I perceive and write poetry is English 472- Advanced Poetry (Simon Fraser University). It was taught by Jordan Scott, who is not only an incredible poet, but an amazing mentor. He opened my eyes to a whole new world of experimental poetry, which intertwines with the dialectical themes such as sexuality and religion, two major themes that I play with in my poetry book War/Torn. If I had wrote the book with rhymes, then it would lose its significance. I am very grateful for him and also super grateful for my professor/mentor Jacqueline Turner, who inspired me to find new ways to write poetry. She challenged on the way I incorporate words and how to reshape them so they would give new meaning. Another author/poet who inspired me is Fred Wah, especially the term languageless, being hyphenated in-between two opposite languages. I find myself hyphenated between Arabic-English, Iraqi-Canadian, in search of reconciliation between the two identities and languages.
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