Overview

This is the first substantial selection of poems by SuAndi, whose work – as performer, writer for stage and arts curator – has recently been celebrated by the award of the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature, of which she is an honorary fellow, for services to literature across her career, which recognised her poems’ fierce, vividly powerful and dramatic depictions of women’s lives – in Manchester, the city she grew up in – and of Black communities and the lives of those whose voices are not often heard, even now, in contemporary British literature. In this selection, the rhythms of speech and performance echo off the page. Though she is as at home with the dramatic monologue as the lyric and the ballad, SuAndi’s poems defy easy categorisation and make visible on the page a remarkable trailblazing writing career.

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9781800174993

Table of Contents

Reviews

‘SuAndi is the real deal. She tells it like it is.’ Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaica-born dub poet and activist ‘Direct and sassy, wisecracking and poignant, political and opinionated, often controversial [SuAndi’s work] encompasses both history and the current moment.’ Lauri Scheyer, Professor of English, Hunan Normal University ‘It can be dangerous talking to SuAndi – about her work, your work, politics, society. You’ll get her truth. If you can’t handle it, go elsewhere, but always know that she will be as honest as she is in her writing.’ Merle Collins, Professor of Comparative Literature and English, University of Maryland

Author Information

SuAndi is a writer, poet and arts practitioner born and raised in Manchester. She is the recipient of an OBE, a Doctor of Arts from Manchester Metropolitan University and a Doctor of Letters degree from Lancaster University. Her awards include the Windrush Inspirational Award, Winston Churchill Fellowship, Hope & Inspiration Award for Work Supporting Black History Month, NESTA Dream Time Fellowship, Big Issue in the North Individual Inspirational Award and the MBMEN Lifetime Award. In 2023 SuAndi was the recipient, in her hometown, of the Manchester Culture Special Recognition Award. In 2024 SuAndi was named an Honorary Fellow as well as awarded the Benson Medal by the Royal Society of Literature, in recognition of ‘conspicuous service to literature’.

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