Bad Diaspora Poems

Winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection

Momtaza Mehri

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Vintage
10 July 2025

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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*FINALIST FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD
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*WINNER OF THE SKY ARTS AWARD FOR POETRY
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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: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 199mm, Width: 130mm, Spine: 11mm
Weight: 123g
ISBN: 9781529922561
ISBN 10: 1529922569
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 10 July 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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

An exceptional debut collection that reinvigorates ideas around diaspora, migration and home. Wide-ranging and ambitious, her poetry shimmers with erudition and linguistic exquisiteness, while also having an emotional heart. Drawing on global cultures, Mehri is a truly transnational poet of the twenty-first century whose words pulsate out into the world-at-large -- Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other Mehri’s work is not just politically vital but poetically alive * Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* * A poet like Momtaza Mehri comes only once in a generation. Mehri is a writer of refined insight, audacious imagination and artful technicality - a genius. Bad Diaspora Poems is a feat, its scope of movement both in time and geography is immense, you are swallowed into its voyage. This is an essential collection in the Black diasporic discourse -- Caleb Femi, author of Poor Mehri brings unflinching discursive skills to verse that melds criticism, autobiography and essay while still achieving a crisp sonic momentum characteristic of lyric poetry... Mehri is a dazzling voice that refuses to speak from a podium * Guardian * Rich, playful, often funny * Sunday Times *