Awards

• Winner of a

Overview

At the core of this debut collection is a question – what is worth holding onto? Through poetic experiments that blend the academic and the artistic, Rhiya Pau queries complex characters and tender landscapes. Routes journeys from Ba’s kitchen in Sonia Gardens to Independence hour in Delhi, across the pink shores of Nakuru, to meet a painter on Lee High Road. Celebrating fifty years since her community arrived in the UK, Pau chronicles the migratory histories of her ancestors and simultaneously lays bare the conflicts of identity that arise from being a member of the East African-Indian diaspora. In this multilingual discourse exhibiting vast formal range, Pau wrestles with language, narrative and memory, daring to navigate their collective fallibilities to architect her own identity. '[Routes]...holds up to the light the wisdom of the past, and asks what else is passed down along with it...a work of humane intelligence, formal experiment and linguistic verve' - Sarah Howe, Judge of Eric Gregory Awards 2022

Full Product Details

9781913665715

Table of Contents

Reviews

Routes ...holds up to the light the wisdom of the past, and asks what else is passed down along with it.This is a collection in which routes and roots tug against one another: a family is scattered in the wake of India's Partition; its children and grandchildren make new homes for themselves within a kaleidoscope of tongues. This is a work of humane intelligence, formal experiment and linguistic verve that promises much. Sarah Howe, Eric Gregory Awards 2022 Judge Rhiya Pau's collection is a feast of language and probably the first with such inventive and delightful use of Gujlish. From India's Independence struggle to the global pandemic, Pau maps the political and emotional landscapes of her immigrant Gujarati family, bringing their many worlds to life through unforgettable sights, sounds, and sensations. With richly diverse and experimental storytelling, this collection re-imagines and re-interprets the many possibilities and meanings of identity, diaspora, belonging, and community for South Asian immigrants everywhere.Jenny Bhatt, author, translator, and founder of Desi Books

Author Information

Rhiya Pau is a British-born poet of Indian heritage from a community with a rich history of migration. She is one half of Origins Poetry Duo, who host multi-disciplinary fundraisers, platforming emerging artists of the global majority and is a member of the Poets for Partition collective. Rhiya was the winner of the 2021 Creative Future Writers’ Award. Her debut poetry collection, Routes, won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2022.

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