Spring 2022
“Last night in my dreams, I went home. I walked into our garden, cried, and said, “I was dying to smell the flowers.” Then I went to my room and wrote a poem. In the morning, I woke up on the fifth floor in a hotel room in Albania, where I fled to as a refugee from Afghanistan last year. The sunlight was coming through the window’s white curtains. I closed my eyes and wanted to feel at home. But home was nowhere.”
Shafiqa Khpalwak is a poet, writer, columnist, and translator. She graduated from the American University of Afghanistan in 2020 in Political Science and Public Administrations. Currently she is the director of the Musawer Foundation, which works on children literature, education, and rights advocacy. She has published six books and many articles and essays. She will soon be a fellow-researcher in Peace Studies at Wellesley College, USA.