I Who Have Always Felt Words

“I read this collection through tears of recognition, of nostalgia, of grief, of joy. Alkamil writes of the Sudanese diaspora experience in this moment with stunning, aching precision, and with a firm, profound hope that we have a future, we are here, we are worthy, we are loved. Even if only by ourselves, we are loved.” — Yassmin Abdel-Magied, author of At Sea

“In Shams Alkamil’s I Who Have Always Felt Words, words are alive. Language has many lives and afterlives—it lingers between the living and the dead, between prayer, protest, and curse. In this formally inventive, restless collection, Alkamil moves between essayistic gestures, anaphoric incantations, and lyric self-portraiture as she maps the entanglements of the spiritual, the speculative, the political, and the ungodly. Tethered to a grieving Sudan, I Who Have Always Felt Words is an essential, arresting collection that insists “this broken world,” where “sorrow embroiders the walls,” is not beyond revival.” — Sara Elkamel, author of Field of No Justice and Garden City Sea

“In I Who Have Always Felt Words, Shams Alkamil forces you to feel: through the pulse of God, and the hands of relatives as they exist on Earth before they retire into the afterlife. In a collection “thick with dhikr,” the Quran is beautifully intertwined like guiding light posts leading you to a home you once knew. Alkamil’s forgotten prayers remind us of the love that saves, the nostalgia which flavors a dish, and the ancestors who left us for the better. Alkamil shines a light on our unspoken love and the rooms filled with darkness of grief.” — Maha Haswhi, author of The Pomegranate Is a Grenade

Shams Alkamil is a Sudanese-American poet, educator, and copywriter based in Texas. Her work is shaped by Sudanese heritage and explores Black identity, spirituality, lineage, and political commentary. She is the author of When Time Is Circular. Her writing has appeared in House of Amal, Adi Magazine, Rowayat, Mizna, Four Way Review, Ghost City Press, Qafiyah Review, The Ana, Torch Literary Arts, and more. In 2025, she was shortlisted as a finalist for Sundress Publications’ Light Bill Incubator Microgrant.

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