We're delighted to announce our Winter Pamphlet Choice is Sargam / Swargam by Fathima Zahra, published by ignition press. Sargam / Swargam evokes a deep sense of precarity in being, belonging and in the very words we choose to mean home. This pamphlet, simultaneously forthright and fragile, touches on themes of girlhood, shame, desire and an uneasy burgeoning into maturity. Through exquisitely-wrought language and precise character observations, these poems capture what it is to grow up in three different locations, illuminating the legacies of that experience.
Fathima Zahra is an Indian poet based in Essex. She is a Barbican Young Poet and a Roundhouse Poetry Collective alumna. Her poems have won the Bridport Prize, Asia House Poetry Slam and Wells Fest Young Poets Prize. Zahra has performed at festivals across the UK including Hay, Brainchild and VERVE Poetry Festival. Her pamphlet, Sargam / Swargam, is published by ignitionpress, which is based at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre and is available to order via the link.