To a Syrian Prisoner of Conscience

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In January 2011, the American poet Gregory Carlock travelled to Damascus. There, he met Waddah ‘Azzam, a young writer, who introduced him to the city’s underground of poets, hashheads, and political activists. The pair travelled through Syria together, making translations of one another’s poems, which they performed every week at Bayt al-Qasid – Lukman Derky’s ecstatic gatherings in the basement of the Hotel Fardous.

Eighteen months after leaving Syria, Carlock learned that Waddah had been kidnapped by state security forces. For more than a year afterwards, he didn’t know whether his friend was still alive. In that period of limbo, he wrote Waddah a letter.

Part travelogue, part elegy, To a Syrian Prisoner of Conscience illuminates the tumultuous weeks immediately preceding the Syrian uprising, offering readers a sustained meditation on politics, friendship, and the nature of the poetic act.