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Moheb Soliman to present Great Lakes poetry tonight in Alpena

Courtesy Photo Poet Moheb Soliman will host a reading at 6 p.m. tonight at the Pocket Park next to the Community Fish Mural on Chisholm Street in Alpena. Soliman has written an 88-page book of poems called “HOMES,” focusing on the Great Lakes.

ALPENA ­– Originally from Egypt, Moheb Soliman has been in the U.S. since age 6, and now he is coming to Alpena.

The poet writes about his travels around the Great Lakes region, and he will be hosting a book signing at 6 p.m. today at the Pocket Park in Alpena by the Community Fish Mural on Chisholm Street.

His appearance is hosted by Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Art in the Loft, Alpena County Library, Susan Lane Foundation and Parallel 45 Books.

In his debut book, “HOMES”, Soliman explores themes of nature, modernity, identity, belonging, and sublimity through the Great Lakes region. Before sharing work from the book, he will be joined by a diverse group of Alpena organizations for a discussion of their overlapping perspectives and backgrounds regarding relationships to place, water and environment issues, and the Great Lakes region as a whole as well as Alpena’s special corner of it.

“The idea of belonging has really been a big deal to me,” he explained, noting that he identifies as a Midwesterner since he has been here since age 6.

Courtesy Photo Poet Moheb Soliman reads his poems to an audience recently.

He said he has latched onto the “Third Coast” in his quest for connection and identity in the U.S. He grew up in Alexandria on the Mediterranean, so he wonders if that is part of the reason he is drawn to the large bodies of water.

“It’s kind of interesting to fall in love with the Great Lakes because they’re so endangered,” Soliman said. “We have this incredible, massive, sublime, wild, beautiful, natural world right here.”

This book has been in the works for over a decade, since Soliman visited the Great Lakes in 2007.

“In 2007 I circled the Great Lakes for the first time, just by myself, out of a really big curiosity about the region, and it kind of blew my mind,” he said.

Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest who has presented work at diverse art and public spaces in the U.S. and Canada with support from numerous foundations and institutions. His first book of poems, “HOMES” (Coffee House Press, 2021), is part contemporary nature poetry, part immigrant travelogue, immersed in the vast natural-cultural sprawl of the Great Lakes region.

The 88-page book features a variety of poems focusing on all the Great Lakes. Soliman has traveled around the region on both the U.S. and Canada sides of the Great Lakes. He is currently doing a book tour all over the coastal regions of Michigan, Wisconsin and other Great Lakes states.

When he first came to the U.S., he and his family lived in Oklahoma, but he said he mostly grew up in Ohio. He has lived in Michigan, Toronto (Ontario), Montreal (Quebec), and then, six years ago, he moved to Minneapolis, where he lives now.

For more information, visit www.mohebsoliman.info.

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