“At a time of deliberate silencing of Kashmiri voices, a unique poetic resistance packed with a punch of righteous anger against tyranny and oppression. As the ‘shahids’ (witnesses) of our time, Rahat and Summaya carry forward the tradition of Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali. Their compassionate poetic revolt must be heard, read, and felt.”
—Idrisa Pandit

“Two Kashmiri friends, one in Vancouver and the other in Srinagar, write to each other about everyday challenges: life under military occupation, lives constrained by patriarchal expectations. As poets of loss – and of resistant, stubborn hope – their dialogue unites them and us into eddying circles of pain, empathy, and love.”
—Suvir Kaul

“ In The City That Is Leaving Forever, Rahat Kurd and Sumayya Syed illustrate how poetry sustains them through the violence of war, the threat of a pandemic, summer heat, and incessant Vancouver rain. A remarkable testament to a gorgeous epistolary friendship.”
—Otoniya Juliane Okot Bitek

"A poetic, sometimes-hilarious, and heartfelt book … Resistance courses through every letter, every photograph, and every poem … [this] correspondence reveals the poetry constantly embedded in shared WhatsApp messages, photographs, emojis, and everyday anecdotes. This is a book that echoes and resonates with every page."
—Minola Review