I cannot be good until you say it

If you like the poems of Ntozake Shange, Fatimah Asgar and Nikita Gill, you can’t go wrong with Sanah Ahsan’s heart punching debut collection, where the sounds of “lonely prayers”, Quranic verse and meditation create a lyrical soundtrack dedicated to the goodness and the shadows of men, mothers and the “othered” -- RAYMOND ANTROBUS Liberation is at the nucleus of every page of Sanah Ahsan’s rousing debut I cannot be good until you say it. Liberation of families within the gears of capitalism: “Fifteen shifts my mother worked Saturdays so I could bend / my wrists at different angles / over a second-hand violin.” Liberation of faith from the small minds of those who claim Islam but ignore the expansiveness of its deen: “Some need Hell to be muslim— / conjure their own religion / name it / Islam.” And always, liberation of ancestors, beyond time and empire: “we give / our lineage of pain a megaphone.” Ahsan is doing liberation work, offering readers a prayer, a song, a hand to hold amidst the amidst -- KAVEH AKBAR When I speak of the word “sacred”, Sanah Ahsan’s I cannot be good until you say it will forever instantly spring to mind. Each poem in this collection is a jewel crafted with such deep care - the musicality of the verse, the impact of memory on the language, the precision of themes like family and memory, sexuality and religion all blend together to create this masterpiece. An honour to have read this book, I am forever changed after reading its beauty -- NIKITA GILL Sanah Ahsan's poetry is an exhilarating declaration of love and an invocation to bare the soul * GUARDIAN * Sanah Ahsan's writing is like a healing balm, even with the deepest of wounds. With grace, light, hope and generosity of spirit, Ahsan paints a vision of the world that can be home to us all. A majestic talent -- AMROU AL-KADHI, author of Unicorn