Warsan Shire shares the inspirations behind her first full collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by A Voice in Her Head:
"Poetry was passed on to me, a supreme gift. This is an ode to my unhinged women and their distraught, melancholic men. This is a celebration of their wicked humour and bewildering strength, their courage and bombastic love. I return to the mother wound often, I am trying to understand my fleshy roots. This book is an exploration of my girlhood and its many rituals... A love letter to my child self."
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, and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. Warsan wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award-winning visual album Lemonade and Disney film Black Is King in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. She 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.
Pre-order here with 25% off for PBS Members in time for the 10th March pub date.