No One Is on the Line: The Poetry of Mohsen Mohamed

These poems arose from the depths of incarceration, from the throat and intellect of Mohsen Mohamed (sentenced to five years of harsh imprisonment after a campus protest) and went on to win Egypt’s two most significant literary prizes. They speak of dislocation and the wrenching of the heart, of a found (and forged) community, of the bare lineaments of humanity disclosed in the throes of suffering. They are works of provocative witness and searching tenderness.

Mohsen Mohamed is an Egyptian poet born in 1994. His poetry collection entitled, Mafeesh Raqam Birod (No One is on the Line), was published in 2020 by Dar El Meraya for Cultural Production. It won first prize for vernacular poetry at the Cairo international Book Fair as well as the Sawiris Cultural Award. In 2014, in the aftermath of a student demonstration (in which he did not participate), while coming to the aid of a young woman, Mohamed was caught up in a sweep of arrests on his campus. His life as a poet began during the five years he spent in prisons.

Sherine Elbanhawy is pursuing an MA in Islamic Studies with a specialization in Women and Gender Studies at McGill University. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is the founder of Rowayat, a literary magazine showcasing SWANA writers and their diasporas. Her short story, “Night Stencils,” won the 2021 Masters Review Summer Short Story Prize, and her writing has been published in The Malahat Review, Room Magazine, ArabLit and elsewhere. She is a board member and the Secretary of AIM, the Alliance of Inclusive Muslims.