Poetry that serves as an evocative portrayal of diverse landscapes and cultures.

In these otherworldly poetry sequences, Samira Negrouche reminds us that "all life is movement," where "time passes through me / beings pass through me / they are me / I am them." The "I" is representative of one voice, three voices, all voices, all rooted in movement as their bodies brush past one another, brush against thresholds of time and space. Everything is in flux--including the dream-like landscapes at the borders of borders--as the poet seeks to recover parts of self and memory, on both a personal and universal level. In these poems, history-laden locales such as Algiers, Timbuktu, N'Djamena, Cotonou, Zanzibar, Cape Town, and Gorée are evoked. Even the language, expertly and sensitively translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson, refuses to be pinned down, as it loops back on itself. At times contradictory, at times fractured in meaning, syntax, and diction, the playful language is riddled with "restless" verbs. In the end, the "I" takes on prophetic overtones, instilling hope for the future.

Author: Samira Negrouche
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Seagull Books
Published: 05/06/2024
Series: Africa List
Pages: 140
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 9.13h x 6.14w x 0.47d
ISBN: 9781803093383

About the Author
Samira Negrouche was born in Algiers where she continues to live and work. Her work has been shortlisted for the Dereck Walcott Prize for Poetry and the National Translation Award in Poetry. Nancy Naomi Carlson is a poet and translator whose translation of Khal Torabully's Cargo Hold of Stars: Coolitude, also published by Seagull Books, won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.