Through these poems, I retrace my mother’s journey to New York City in the summer of '89 as a Jewish-Uyghur refugee, while very pregnant with me. Traveling alone, my mother gives birth to me along the way.
My poetry book How to Love the World won Pank's 2019 Big Book Poetry Contest and was a finalist of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award.
Judges' Comments:
"In How to Love the World, Jewish Uyghur refugee Elvira Basevich orients herself in a world where 'a Jews looks at an Arab / and see herself,' where 'The part of me that’s a Jewish poet / is lost in a parking lot in Detroit,' where her father — once a Professor of Mathematics at Moscow State University — now drives a taxi in New York City and curses customers who dare to hail his cab as he works out theorems at red lights. Basevich begins with her own mid-migration birth in Vienna and then hurries the reader across borders, disciplines, and languages until we’re breathless — not just from the difficult journey, but also from the urgent delight of Basevich’s humor and maximalism. Whether relating to Lebanese refugees or Immanuel Kant, Basevich insists that 'the writing of poetry is a kind of time travel; and it is always a preparation for love.'”
"In How to Love the World [...] Elvira Basevich imagines the feelings and thoughts of her refugee mother as she retraces the woman’s journey. The runner-up title—written in the form of a sprawling and emotional epic poem—contextualizes this odyssey in terms of nationalism, feminism, and overall humanity, strikingly questioning who gets to call a country home. The book’s thoughtful, fascinating grasp of many nuanced intersections hint at Basevich’s passion for philosophy (she teaches in the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts), as well as her complicated yet fiercely loving appreciation for mother-daughter relationships."
Judges' Comments:
"In How to Love the World, Jewish Uyghur refugee Elvira Basevich orients herself in a world where 'a Jews looks at an Arab / and see herself,' where 'The part of me that’s a Jewish poet / is lost in a parking lot in Detroit,' where her father — once a Professor of Mathematics at Moscow State University — now drives a taxi in New York City and curses customers who dare to hail his cab as he works out theorems at red lights. Basevich begins with her own mid-migration birth in Vienna and then hurries the reader across borders, disciplines, and languages until we’re breathless — not just from the difficult journey, but also from the urgent delight of Basevich’s humor and maximalism. Whether relating to Lebanese refugees or Immanuel Kant, Basevich insists that 'the writing of poetry is a kind of time travel; and it is always a preparation for love.'”
"In How to Love the World [...] Elvira Basevich imagines the feelings and thoughts of her refugee mother as she retraces the woman’s journey. The runner-up title—written in the form of a sprawling and emotional epic poem—contextualizes this odyssey in terms of nationalism, feminism, and overall humanity, strikingly questioning who gets to call a country home. The book’s thoughtful, fascinating grasp of many nuanced intersections hint at Basevich’s passion for philosophy (she teaches in the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts), as well as her complicated yet fiercely loving appreciation for mother-daughter relationships."
Selections
Viktor Pivovarov, “How to Depict the Life of the Soul?” (1975)