Each month, we will meet to discuss a different book by an Asian diaspora writer or about Asian diaspora issues. We welcome anyone who enjoys thoughtful conversation surrounding Asian diaspora issues and stories.

This month, our book is The Essential Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks, and we will be meeting at Dear Globe Coffee.

Book description:

Rūmī was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Mas̄navī-yi Maʿnavī (“Spiritual Couplets”), which widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world.

This revised and expanded edition of The Essential Rumi includes a new introduction by Coleman Barks and more than 80 never-before-published poems.

Through his lyrical translations, Coleman Barks has been instrumental in bringing this exquisite literature to a remarkably wide range of readers, making the ecstatic, spiritual poetry of thirteenth-century Sufi Mystic Rumi more popular than ever.

The Essential Rumi continues to be the bestselling of all Rumi books, and the definitive selection of his beautiful, mystical poetry.