Kayo Chingonyi

Some Bright Elegance captures those moments of transformation when people, places or objects take on new significances. In the book this is explored in relation to bereavement, the transcendental qualities of music and the search for understanding between people.

Some Bright Elegance

Blood Condition

*Winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize 2018* *Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award 2018* *Shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Prize 2017* *Shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre First Poetry Collection Prize 2018* *Shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2018* *Shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize 2018* *Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2018* *Selected as a 2017 Book of the Year in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph* 'A brilliant debut – a tender, nostalgic and, at times, darkly hilarious exploration of black boyhood, masculinity and grief. A gorgeous and necessary collection from one of my favourite writers' Warsan Shire Translating as ‘initiation’, kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man. The poems of Kayo Chingonyi’s remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived. Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

Kumukanda

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR In this blistering anthology, poet, editor and DJ Kayo Chingonyi brings together a selection of exceptional Black British poets. This is his dream mixtape featuring a cross-generational span of current poets extending and inhabiting the spirits of the ancestors. Following in the tread of Lemn Sissay's The Fire People, More Fiya aims to lodge in the mind of its readers for a lifetime, radiating to touch the lives of many. Including work from: Jason Allen-Paisant, Raymond Antrobus, Janette Ayachi, Dean Atta, Malika Booker, Eric Ngalle Charles, Dzifa Benson, Inua Ellams, Samatar Elmi, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Keith Jarrett, Anthony Joseph, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Vanessa Kisuule, Rachel Long, Adam Lowe, Nick Makoha, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Momtaza Mehri, Bridget Minamore, Selina Nwulu, Gboyega Odubanjo, Louisa Adjoa Parker, Roger Robinson, Denise Saul, Kim Squirrell, Warsan Shire, Rommi Smith, Yomi Sode, Degna Stone, Keisha Thompson, Kandace Siobhan Walker, Warda Yassin, Belinda Zhawi

A New Collection of Black British Poetry

More Fiya

The moving, expansive, and dazzling second collection from award-winning poet Kayo Chingonyi A Blood Condition tells a story of inheritance - the people, places, cultures and memories that form us. Kayo Chingonyi explores how distance and time, nations and a century's history, can collapse within a body; our past continuous in our present. From London, Leeds, and The North East to the banks of the Zambezi river, these poems consider change and permanence, grief and joy, the painful ongoing process of letting go, with remarkable music and clarity. Praise for Kumukanda: 'Chingonyi's poems are full of questions that need asking. His gift is for pushing poems further than you expected them to go' Observer 'Kayo's poetry is beautiful, thoughtful, musical and nostalgic' Nikesh Shukla 'Whether recalling his parents' deaths or celebrating the art of the mixtape, Chingonyi's poise is astonishing' Daily Telegraph

Kayo Chingonyi

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