Bad Diaspora Poems

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection

Momtaza Mehri

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English

Jonathan Cape Ltd
17 October 2023

Poetry; Poetry by individual poets; Migration, immigration & emigration; Black & Asian studies

The much-awaited debut collection from a remarkable poetic voice

Diaspora is witnessing a murder without getting blood on your shirt.
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*WINNER OF THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION
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*A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
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'Exceptional... Mehri is a truly transnational poet of the twenty-first century' BERNARDINE EVARISTO, author of Girl, Woman, Other

'A once in a generation poet'

CALEB FEMI, author of Poor

The definition of diaspora is the dispersion of people from their original homeland. But what does it mean to write diaspora poetry? Momtaza Mehri's debut collection poses this question, taking us from Mogadishu to Naples, Lampedusa to London. Mixing her own family's experience with the stories of many others across nineteenth- and twentieth-century Somalia, Bad Diaspora Poems confronts the ambivalent nature of speaking for those who have been left behind.

We meet the poet, the translator, the refugee, the exile, and the diaspora kid attempting to transcend their cliched angst. Told in lyric, prose and text messages, and taking place in living rooms and marketplaces, on buses and balconies, on transatlantic journeys and online, these are essential poems about our diasporic age.

By: Momtaza Mehri
Imprint: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 206mm, Width: 145mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 223g
ISBN: 9781787334373
ISBN 10: 1787334376
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 17 October 2023
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Momtaza Mehri is an award-winning poet and essayist. She is a former Young People's Poet Laureate for London and winner of the 2019 Manchester Writing Prize. Her writing has featured in the Guardian, POETRY, Granta, Wasafiri, Bidoun, the White Review and on BBC Radio 4. She works across criticism, translation, anti-disciplinary research practices, education and radio. Bad Diaspora Poems is the winner of an Eric Gregory Award and the 2023 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

Reviews for Bad Diaspora Poems: Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection

There's something arresting about Momtaza Mehri's multi-lingual verses. * Dazed's New Generation Poets * One of 5 Somali-British Poets You Need To Know About * Buzzfeed *