Saint Serotonin

Warsan Shire

I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me, as she so powerfully gives voice to the unspoken

Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed

It is absolutely astonishing how much emotion, intelligence, imagination, and truth Warsan Shire can get into one collection. She is a poet of the highest order, with a compassionate heart, and a limitless mind

Must-read poetry from the superstar Somali-British writer Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire... explores trauma, womanhood and migration so magnificently that even Beyoncé has quoted her

I read Warsan Shire's eagerly awaited debut poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head, greedily, in one giant gulp. It surpassed my expectations, and shortly after I turned the final page of this collection, I wanted more

Shire's strikingly beautiful imagery leverages the specificity of her own womanhood, love life, tussles with mental health, grief, family history, and stories from the Somali diaspora, to make them reverberate universally... Enthralling... The poetry in Bless the Daughter soothes, even while it picks at the scabs of the wounds that cause trauma

Powerful metaphors characterise Warsan Shire's Bless the Daughter Raised By a Voice in Her Head, a book of blessings, of ecstasy through trauma, in particular the trauma of the refugee

Poetry is a sure-fire way to change your mental landscape and this long-awaited collection from the Somali-British poet/Beyoncé collaborator combines poems about war and migration with celebrations of joy

'60 ways to turn your world upside down' - Guardian

At the heart of this book is Shire's compassion and celebration of human life

This sort of poetry fills the hole in our culture left by preaching. It's topical... Shire speaks of racism, misogyny and life as a refugee... Her imagery is striking

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is full of ferocious love and truth. It is not overstatement to say Shire writes the way Nina Simone sang

Terrance Hayes, author of National Book Award finalist, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

Heartbreaking, full-bodied, and luscious. Although they encompass complex themes, the poems are lucid and utterly magically alive, it's almost like the book is a person!

Warsan Shire is an expert sculptor. She molds words into clay, her poems into statues-each one a wonder that I return to, in reverence. Because in every line, every curve is an invitation to see differently what has been deemed ugly or difficult. This book is the art gallery I've yearned to visit

Vivek Shraya, author of I’m Afraid of Men

Read these candid and revelatory poems to wrap your arms tight around the certainty of your own fracture, to acknowledge the many places and many ways your body has succumbed to violation and only fitfully healed. Read them to know your whole muscled self as a vessel for grief, and to bask in the stuttered lyric of its story. Beauty is maddeningly elusive, but it does exist. It's here in these lines, bursting brilliant, reshaping the story

Her poems are alchemical; I promise if you read a poem of hers you might levitate, at the very least you will be changed

Shire's electrifying poems have the resonance of instant classics... Shire raises up in dignity the lives of immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls... This is poetry that has the power to create empathy, a quality which often seems lacking in these turbulent times

A very contemporary mix of deep tenderness and caustic humour

A celebration of Black womanhood, joy, diaspora and beyond.

With many of its poems famous in wider culture, it delivers an emotional intensity no less captivating for being familiar

This collection is a gut-punching series of poems that has haunted me ever since I first read it. I am so excited to see what Warsan Shire does next

[A] stunning debut collection... her words speak to women's experiences worldwide

Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER

A series of mesmerising poems about the experience of women and girls

Shortlisted for the 2022 Felix Dennis Prize

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION* 
** AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** 
 
'Warsan Shire is an extraordinarily gifted poet whose profoundly moving poems so powerfully give voice to the unspoken' Bernardine Evaristo 
 
'Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed' Guardian 
__________ 
 
Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience from the award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Black Is King. 
 
With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a girl who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. These are noisy lives, full of music and weeping and surahs. These are fragrant lives, full of blood and perfume and jasmine. These are polychrome lives, full of moonlight and turmeric and kohl. 
 
The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of survival. Each reader will come away changed. 
 
'Warsan Shire electrifies... The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts' Roxane Gay 
 
'Absolutely beautiful... So relevant' Elizabeth Day, *Day's Delights*

Warsan Shire

Praise for Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head

I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me ...

An incredible collection

Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed

I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me ...

An incredible collection

Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed

I have long been a massive fan of Warsan Shire's extraordinarily gifted poetry. Her exquisite, memorable and finely-tuned poems articulate a depth of experience that never fails to surprise and profoundly move me ...

An incredible collection

Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one's past... Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed

Books by Warsan Shire

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter