Pilgrim Bell (SHORTLISTED, FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION)

Pilgrim Bell is the anticipated second collection of poems from Forward Prize nominated Kaveh Akbar, a widely published contemporary voice in poetry. Akbar’s craft is measured and precise, but his confidence shows most in the intellectual space left around the form of aphorisms: ‘Whatever you aren’t, which is what makes you’. Much is being mused in this work which speaks to lived experiences of the poet’s immigrant identity, born in Iran, raised as a Muslim in an intolerant America, and his personal pursuit of sobriety. Each aspect alone could provide sufficient depth to delve into, but are instead wrapped together in a quest for religious reverie. 

THE EVENING ROAD

There is only one road, and there is no choice but to take it; to ride atop that stolen wagon straight down over the guilt and dirt and prejudice of an old town, and to stumble, hands and knees to the ground along Laird Hunt’s gravel road all the way to that 1930 Indianapolis lynching. Read More

THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR (LONGLISTED, 2017 BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE)

The Woman Next Door is Yewande Omotoso’s second novel, appearing five years after her debut Born Boy, which earned her the Etilasalat and Norman Mailer Fellowships and the Miles Morland Scholarship. Omotoso grew up in Nigeria and has lived in South Africa since 1992. The novel reveals the continuing prejudices in modern Cape Town suburbia Read More