أيام وأيام: Let's ''Drift Away'' with Yassmin El-Nazer !!

Drift away is the name of an English poetry collection written by Yassmin El- Nazer. We’ve to say that it’s the 1st Egyptian English poetry collection written by a pure Egyptian, settling in Egypt, receiving all her education in Egypt and published by an Egyptian publishing house (Creators, the English branch of Oktob). The collection consists of 9 categories: "By: as an adult me" opening and a sort of a different kind of book closure. In addition to 20 bonus poetry pieces.

The categories nearly discuss everything other than what people usually expect poetry to be, i.e.: just about romance. Indeed there is a category about Love, but also Yassmin was keen in this collection to send a message throughout every category

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An interview with Yassmin El-Nazer by Shaymaa El-Gammal

- When did you decide to compile your poems in one book?

- I have started writing English poetry long time ago and 6 years ago I was a member of a poetry site called: ilovepoetry.com, where I meet a poet friend who introduced me to an international poetry site with an international poetry forum where I get comments from international poets and it keeps your poems copy rights it’s allpoetry.com, 3 years ago being there I got strong encouraging comments and two elder friends an American poet and a British poet and English teacher thought my writings are good and deserve publishing I started looking for international publishing chances 2 years ago and then started checking Egyptian publishing houses and by the beginning of this year I decided to publish with an Egyptian publishing house and chose 73 poems only from my poems to be published in my first collection hoping the rest will be published in following collections if this one succeeds, Amen.

- - What inspires you in writing poetry?

- A friend asked me that question before and guess what, I answered in a poem which is included in my collection, so, you will have to read it to know what inspires me

- What are the issues you discussed in this book?

- Well the book has 9 categories discussing and talking about nearly everything except erotica or sexually oriented poems

- Did you face difficulties in publishing your book?

- No, I was quite lucky and my poems were accepted by the publishing houses I applied my poems to. I also had 4 poems previously published in poetry anthologies in London by forward press publishing houses and had my own poetry page in a free magazine

- Tell me about your experience with OKtob?

- Oktob is a new publishing house and to be honest with you I never cared about knowing publishing houses names till a colleague of mine published her Arabic poetry collection and I joined her books’ face book group and Oktobs’ group too only then I started getting interested in their publications

- Were you a bit worried cuz Octob is not famous for publishing English books?

- Well English books in general are not common in Egypt most books are either translated or for already famous writers especially poetry it’s very rare in Egypt so I was taking the adventure to be the first to try and Oktob happened to be taking the same adventure of publishing English books and opening an English publishing branch so being worried was not for publishing with Oktob but it was about the step itself.

- What is your message from this book?

- This collection has a message with every category and every poem but I want the readers to look deeper and to feel the power that yes we can change the world even if this was through poetry, I want them to remember things and events that the world seems to have forgotten and also to notice that even the tiniest even childish things are things that we can learn from

- What else do you do rather than writing poems?

- Well I am a doctor, Neuro-psychiatry specialist and that is my identity, beside writing English poetry ,I write English columns, medical articles , starting to write short stories and children stories, Arabic zagal , articles, I draw using pencil and charcoal, I make hand made greeting cards, for a while I tried using beads making necklaces and stuff and I make sea shells as pendants, I try designing silver jewelry but am an amateur mmm,what else? There are many things am trying to learn or to take the step to ever learn

- Tell me some secrets – weirdos about you? Only for me!

- Mmm, secrets about me, well am a romantic person, very, I never hate, I love animals, all animals, insects ,I had land snails as pets and once a ladybird, besides trying to raise cats, birds, tortoise, fish even once bought chicks from a boy in the street actually I pitted both him and the chicks walking all day in the sun hurting them and I love to meditate in nature a lot, I think about every thing, I am a simple person who is never fascinated by luxury and stuff tiny things are what impress me, I love GOD a lot, my family and friends mean the world to me ,nothing more ,ah, one more thing, I hate to talk about myself in the first place

- What is your second step?

My next step will be trying to publish English short stories, Arabic zagal and some comics some of which will be a surprise and a new adventure for me and again the publishing house that’d take my idea

Please tell us a sample of your work...The closest thing to your heart!!

There are many poems too close to my heart but I think I would choose a poem that I wrote to my mother and I dedicated it to her on mothers’ day since I was broke and it is one of the poems published in London and in my collection I dedicate it to my mother, my grand mother, my God mother, my aunts and my poetry mother

To my mother

My mother
you give me power
My mother
without you life will be harder
My mother
You deserve every flower
My mother
I wish we always stay together
My mother
You will stay in my heart forever
My mother
You make my life better
You wash away my tears
You kill all my fears
You make me fulfill my dreams
May GOD keep you safe
You being there makes me brave
May all mothers stay
For that all children should pray