Poet and filmmaker Fatimah Asghar will discuss and sign their new collection, Daughter of the Mountains, at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The appearance is a July book-tour stop for the collection — Asghar’s first book of poetry since 2018’s If They Come for Us — and brings the poet to Southern California’s oldest independent bookstore for one evening.
Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming is Asghar’s second poetry collection and was published July 7 by One World, an imprint of Random House. In the publisher’s description, the book reckons with the poet’s relationship to Allah, long-estranged kin, the landscape of their ancestors and love itself. Asghar, who has said their family was forced to migrate from Kashmir during the Partition of India, draws on that history in the collection, according to publisher and literary-press descriptions. The collection is arranged in titled sections and was reviewed by the Chicago Review of Books on July 10.
In an interview with The Adroit Journal quoted by the literary nonprofit City of Asylum, Asghar described wishing for “a museum dedicated to my parents and my family, in Kashmir.” Announcing the tour in their newsletter, Asghar wrote that they were “going on a book tour in July for DAUGHTER OF THE MOUNTAINS.” In a blurb provided by the publisher, poet Kaveh Akbar called the collection “a blueprint and a manifesto.”
A South Asian, Muslim and queer writer, Asghar is a poet, filmmaker, educator and performer. They co-created the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls and co-produced Marvel’s Ms. Marvel for Disney+, writing one episode. Asghar’s earlier work includes the 2015 chapbook After and the novel When We Were Sisters, and they co-edited the anthology Halal If You Hear Me with Safia Elhillo.
Vroman’s, founded in 1894 by Adam Clark Vroman, is Southern California’s oldest independent bookstore and, by its own description, its largest. The store, which sits in Pasadena’s Playhouse Village, says it hosts more than 400 free community events a year.
The discussion and signing is set for 7 p.m. at 695 E. Colorado Blvd. Vroman’s, which says purchases of the featured book help make its events possible, lists (626) 449-5320 for information; the store’s website carries event details, including any seating or signing-line specifics.
