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Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

Shortlisted for the 2022 Felix Dennis Prize

Warsan Shire

$27.99

Hardback

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English
Chatto & Windus
01 March 2022
The debut collection from award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyonce's Lemonade and Black Is King.
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION
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* AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4
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'Warsan Shire is an extraordinarily gifted poet whose profoundly moving poems so powerfully give voice to the unspoken' Bernardine Evaristo

'Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed' Guardian

Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience from the award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyonce'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.

'Warsan Shire electrifies... The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts' Roxane Gay

'Absolutely beautiful... So relevant' Elizabeth Day,
*Day's Delights
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By:  
Imprint:   Chatto & Windus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 206mm,  Width: 145mm,  Spine: 12mm
Weight:   193g
ISBN:   9781784743703
ISBN 10:   1784743704
Pages:   96
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Warsan Shire is a Somali-British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award-winning visual album Lemonade and Disney film Black Is King in collaboration with Beyonce Knowles-Carter. She also wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising highlighting the voices and faces of Somali girls in Africa's largest refugee camp. Warsan lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her first full collection.

Reviews for Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Shortlisted for the 2022 Felix Dennis Prize

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 *


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