$3.99
In these poems, Jennifer Mariani grieves a life she can’t return to, as she struggles to belong elsewhere. This work explores the reality of growing up white in post-independence Zimbabwe: Jennifer’s own privilege juxtaposed with everyday poverty and racism. The poems in this book cry out with grief and rage and loss, and sometimes celebration. Every page is warm with the heat of Africa and wet with the tears of unbelonging.
“[A] stirring collection.” – Yejide Kilanko, bestselling author of Daughters Who Walk This Path and A Good Name
“One you will not soon forget.” – Michael Blouin, two-time ReLit Best Novel recipient and winner of both the Lampman and the Diana Brebner Award
Description
EXCERPT from the Title Poem “ALL FORGOTTEN NOW”
We took the pieces of home that we could not carry with us
and stuffed them into our souls
We took Tuku’s music and wood carvings from the flea market
the sound of a dairy board ice cream man trundling down the street was our swan song
Rain on hot tar dust choking us from a Zupco bus “suffer continue” flying by on Robert Mugabe
Avenue
and the fire sun sinking behind jacarandas was etched into vivid memory
ABOUT THE BOOK
A life that crisscrosses Zimbabwe, England, and Canada. A self-imposed exile, a state of constant waiting. In these poems, Jennifer Mariani grieves a life she can’t return to, as she struggles to belong elsewhere. This work explores the reality of growing up white in post-independence Zimbabwe: Jennifer’s own privilege juxtaposed with everyday poverty and racism. The poems in this book cry out with grief and rage and loss, and sometimes celebration. Every page is warm with the heat of Africa and wet with the tears of unbelonging.
PRAISE FOR ALL FORGOTTEN NOW
“In this stirring collection, Jennifer Mariani explores the themes of identity, love, grief, and loss against the backdrop of privilege and racial tensions. How does one navigate the conflicting memories of a home that is no longer a home? Anyone who’s made the heavy decision to leave for new lands knows that there are several complicated questions and no easy answers. And we don’t forget.
– Yejide Kilanko, author of A Good Name and Daughters Who Walk This Path (Canadian bestseller and longlisted for the 2016 Nigeria Literature Prize)
“Jennifer Mariani’s is a voice you may not have knowingly bidden but it is one you will not soon forget. Her words echo of cicadas and woodsmoke – the solace and the wide-open emptiness of a continent and the displacement and sadness of human loss. In her ‘relentless sky heat simmering words roiling tumbling over themselves to escape’ we find that in the end there is no exit from history, and there are no excuses… just words lifted ‘from silence to song’.”
– Michael Blouin, two-time ReLit Best Novel recipient and winner of both the Lampman and the Diana Brebner Award
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Mariani was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. At 17, she moved to Manchester, England, and in 2004, to Canada. She writes about Africa; both the landscape and being white in post-independence Zimbabwe. She also writes about women’s issues including domestic violence and eating disorders. Jennifer now lives in Calgary with her two daughters, three cats, and numerous volumes of Pablo Neruda’s poetry. Her poetry has been featured in Uproar (The Lawrence House Centre For The Arts) and Poetry Pause (The League of Canadian Poets), among others. She teaches ballet at Alberta Ballet School.
Additional information
| Weight | 0.14 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 23 × 15.25 × 0.5 cm |
| Genre | Poetry, Nonfiction |
| Format | Ebook, Digital |
