Mixing personal testimony and pop culture references together in her effervescent debut collection, the Somali British poet and Beyonce collaborator illuminates the experiences of migrants, mothers and many more marginalised figures.
Shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize 2022
Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2023
The debut collection from the voice of a generation – Beyoncé-annointed poet Warsan Shire.
Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience from the award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Black Is King.
With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a girl who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. These are noisy lives, full of music and weeping and surahs. These are fragrant lives, full of blood and perfume and jasmine. These are polychrome lives, full of moonlight and turmeric and kohl.
The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of survival. Each reader will come away changed.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781784743703
Number of pages: 96
Weight: 193 g
Dimensions: 206 x 145 x 12 mm
I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me, as she so powerfully gives voice to the unspoken - Bernardine Evaristo
An incredible collection - Candice Carty-Williams, Stylist
Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed - Mary Jean Chan, 'The best recent poetry' - Guardian
It is absolutely astonishing how much emotion, intelligence, imagination, and truth Warsan Shire can get into one collection. She is a poet of the highest order, with a compassionate heart, and a limitless mind - Benjamin Zephaniah
Must-read poetry from the superstar Somali-British writer Warsan Shire - Stylist
Warsan Shire conveys so vividly the plight of refugees fighting to stay alive and of immigrants disconnected from the the life they knew and the life they wish to build. Of black women and the complex and at times... More
Warsan Shire conveys so vividly the plight of refugees fighting to stay alive and of immigrants disconnected from the life they knew and the life they wish to build. Of black women and the complex and at times violent... More
I'm not usually one for reading poetry for leisure. Usually, I find it too difficult to focus on, too difficult to imagine or to connect with. Warsan Shire turned this completely around.
Just as I'm not...
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