Tjawangwa Dema's Books

The Careless Seamstress

By: Tjawangwa Dema

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This dazzling debut announces a not-so-new voice: that of the spoken-word poet Tjawangwa Dema. Winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Dema’s collection, The Careless Seamstress, evokes the national and the subjective while reemphasizing that what is personal is always political. The girls and women in these poems are not mere objects; they speak, labor, and gaze back, with difficulty and consequence. The tropes are familiar, but in their animation they question and move in unexpected ways. The female body—as a daughter, wife, worker, cultural mutineer—moves continually across this collection, fetching water, harvesting corn, raising children, sewing, migrating, and spurning designations. Sewing is rendered subversive, the unsayable is weft into speech and those who are perhaps invisible in life reclaim their voice and leave evidence of their selves. As a consequence the body is rarely posed—it bleeds and scars; it ages; it resists and warns. The female gaze and subsequent voices suggest a different value system that grapples with the gendering of both physical and emotional labor, often through what is done, even and especially when this goes unnoticed or unappreciated. A body of work that examines the nature of power and resistance, The Careless Seamstress shows both startling clarity of purpose and capaciousness of theme. Using gender and labor as their point of departure, these poems are indebted to Dema’s relationship to language, intertextuality, and narrative. It is both assured and inquiring, a quietly complex skein that takes advantage of poetry’s capacity for the polyphonic.

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U of Nebraska Press

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ISBN 10

149621532X

ISBN 13

9781496215321

The Careless Seamstress

By: Tjawangwa Dema

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The Careless Seamstress

By: Tjawangwa Dema

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U of Nebraska Press

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ISBN 10

1496214129

ISBN 13

9781496214126

An/other Pastoral

By: Tjawangwa Dema

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An/other Pastoral

By: Tjawangwa Dema

History, belonging and race converge with climate crisis, ecosystems and care in these startling and vibrant poems by Tjawangwa Dema. With illustrations by Tebogo Cranwell and a foreword by Chris Abani, an/other pastoral is a compelling collection that refuses easy representations of where nature can be found, and what it means to be human now."--Publisher description.

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ISBN 10

1999737229

ISBN 13

9781999737221

Seven New Generation African Poets

A Chapbook boxed set

By: Tjawangwa Dema,Clifton Gachagua,Tsitsi Ella Jaji,Nick Makoha,Ladan Osman,Warsan Shire,Len Verwey

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Seven New Generation African Poets

A Chapbook boxed set

By: Tjawangwa Dema,Clifton Gachagua,Tsitsi Ella Jaji,Nick Makoha,Ladan Osman,Warsan Shire,Len Verwey

This eight-piece boxed set, an African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) project, features the work of seven African poets, with an introduction by Kwame Dawes, APBF series editor, and Chris Abani. The boxed set is an annual project starting in 2014 to ensure the publication of seven chapbooks by African poets through participating publishers. Publication is made possible through Slapering Hol Press, in association with APBF and the literary journal Prairie Schooner, with support from The Poetry Foundation. The chapbook contains: • Mandible by TJ Dema • The Cartographer of Water by Clifton Gachagua • Carnaval by Tsitsi Jaji • The Second Republic by Nick Makoha • Ordinary Heaven by Ladan Osman • Our Men Do Not Belong To Us by Wasan Shire • Otherwise Everything Goes On by Len Verwey

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Page Count

260

Publisher

Slapering Hol Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1940646588

ISBN 13

9781940646589

Book's by Tjawangwa Dema

The Careless Seamstress

The Careless Seamstress

The Careless Seamstress

The Careless Seamstress

An/other Pastoral

An/other Pastoral

Seven New Generation African Poets

Seven New Generation African Poets

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