Lena Khalaf Tuffaha + Sonnet Spiced Coffee

We're live! In this, our first episode, you'll hear us discuss the virtues and vices of chapbooks. We we interview the inimitable Lena Khalaf Tuffaha over Sonnet Spiced Coffee.

LENA KHALAF TUFFAHA is an American poet, writer, and translator of Palestinian, Jordanian, and Syrian heritage. She is the winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize for Arab in Newsland, and the author of Water & Salt, a book of poems from Red Hen Press published in April 2017, which won the Washington State Book Award. You can follow her on Twitter @LKTuffaha.

SONNET SPICED COFFEE RECIPE

The word “sonnet” comes to us from the Italian word “sonetto,” meaning little song. We don’t know exactly what song is inspiring this coffee, but we’re pretty sure it would sound amazing if sung by Fairuoz (iconic Lebanese diva, see picture below). This drink is pretty easy to make (assuming you know how to make coffee in a French Press and have a bean grinder). Simply coarse-grind your coffee beans and spices together, then proceed with your coffee brewing per usual. Sonnet Spiced Coffee pairs splendidly with fresh satsumas, tiny porcelain cups, and this very episode.

• 8 tablespoons of coffee (we used Peets “Big Bang” blend)
• 3 black peppercorns
• dash of cardamom
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• dash of crushed clove

REFERENCES

• "Translation" and "Water & Salt" by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
• Invasive Species (Nightboat) by Marwa Helal
• "Imagining a Vernacular Future", A Brooklyn Poets class taught by Marwa Helal
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination committee (ADC)
• Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)
• "'I Belong to Many Places': A Q&A with Washington State Book Award Winner Lena Khalaf Tuffaha" (The Seattle Times, December 2018)
• "Hold Up! Time For An Explanatory Comma" (NPR Code Switch)
• "Dozens of Palestinian Detainees on Hunger Strike Are Hospitalized" (The New York Times, May 2014)
• "Ana La Habibi" by Fairuz
• Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press) by Luther Hughes