Two Half Faces

In his first English-language collection, Dutch-Moroccan poet Mustafa Stitou marks his position as one of the most important poets of his generation. Two Half Faces collects work from across Stitou’s career as he grapples with a vital narrative of cultural friction and determines his position in a changing reality. Absurdity and seriousness go hand in hand in Stitou’s work; the anecdotal combines with the irreverent and the sublime to form a vibrant tension. Stitou brilliantly parlays his relationship with his two homelands into a chronicle of identity and tension: East and West come into conflict with each other, complicate reality, and yet refuse stereotypes. This collection charts Stitou’s place as a conceptual poet of emotion and intellect who has grown from ingenue to master, one able to perfectly illuminate the frisson of overlapping cultural identities.