Translated from the Bosnian with an introduction by Ammiel Alcalay

Following his depiction of Bosnia under siege in the much celebrated Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic now explores the vast space of his new continent. Mostly written in response to a cross-country journey by train in post 9-11 America, Mehmedinovic's Nine Alexandrias provides a poetry of witness and testimony of a very different order. In this nightmarish and exhilarating odyssey, Mehmedinovic's political acuity is displayed everywhere but barely pronounced. In Washington, D.C., his new home, the...