Mapping the Future

Born in London to English and Jamaican parents, Karen McCarthy Woolf is the author of two poetry collections and the editor of seven literary anthologies. Shortlisted for the Forward Felix Dennis and Jerwood Prizes, her debut An Aviary of Small Birds (Carcanet, 2014) tells the story of losing a son in childbirth and was an Observer Book of the Year. Her second, Seasonal Disturbances (Carcanet, 2017), explores gentrification, the city and the sacred, and was a winner in the inaugural Laurel Prize for ecological poetry. In 2019 she moved to Los Angeles as a Fulbright postdoctoral scholar and Writer in Residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA exploring the relationship between poetry, law and the impacts of capitalism on black, brown and indigenous bodies. She is a fellow of The Complete Works, a nationwide professional development programme committed to creating more cultural diversity in mainstream poetry publishing; was included in its associated anthology, Ten: New Poets from Spread the Word (2010); and went on to edit the subsequent Bloodaxe anthologies, Ten: The New Wave (2014) and Ten: Poets of the New Generation (2017), also co-editing Mapping the Future: The Complete Works (2023) with Nathalie Teitler. After returning to the UK, 2021 took her to Brazil as an artist in residence at the Sacatar Institute in Bahia where she was researching new work that explores sugar and its cultural and material legacies. Nathalie Teitler works across the fields of arts, activism and academia. Born in Buenos Aires, she holds a PhD in Latin American Poetry (King’s College London, 2000). She has run literature programmes promoting diversity in the UK for over 20 years, founding the first national mentoring and translation programmes for writers living in exile, and is the Director of The Complete Works. In 2015 she founded the world’s first poetry-dance company, Dancing Words, which produces live pieces and films which have been shown at festivals around the world. Nathalie is the co-founder of Invisible Presence, a national programme developing British Latino writers. She co-edited Un Nuevo Sol: British LatinX Writers (flipped eye, 2019), the first major anthology of UK-based writers of Latin American heritage, with Nii Ayikwei Parkes, and Mapping the Future: The Complete Works (Bloodaxe Books, 2023) with Karen McCarthy Woolf. She was appointed Projects Manager for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships in 2018, and has been a director of Bloodaxe Books since 2021.

• 9 Foreword by Bernardine Evaristo12 Introduction by Nathalie Teitler18 Preface by Karen McCarthy WoolfROUND 3Raymond Antrobus25 The Perseverance27 Horror Scene as Black English Royal (Captioned)Leo Boix29 A Latin American Sonnet29 A Latin American Sonnet III30 EucalyptusOmikemi Natacha Bryan32 Sirens33 HomeVictoria Adukwei Bulley35 Declaration36 Pandemic vs. Black Folk37 Dreaming is a Form of Knowledge ProductionWill Harris39 ‘In June, outrageous stood the flagons…’40 The Seven Dreams of Richard Spencer42 Scene Change44 ‘Take the origin of banal…’Ian Humphreys47 The grasshopper warbler’s song48 Swifts and the Awakening City50 The wood warbler’s songMomtaza Mehri52 Fledglings54 I AM BRINGING THE HISTORY OF THE KITCHEN SINK INTO OUR BEDROOM AND YOU CAN’T STOP ME55 ImperativesYomi Ṣode57 Exhibition 2.059 12:05 in North London, Thinking about Kingsley Smith60 An Ode to Bruv, Ting, Fam and, on Occasion, Cuz & My ManDegna Stone63 Walltown Crags63 Proof of Life on Earth65 over {prep., adv}Jennifer Lee Tsai67 About Chinese Women71 The Yellow WomanROUND 2Mona Arshi75 Yellows76 February78 Arrivals79 from My Little Sequence of Ugliness80 from The Book of HurtsJay Bernard82 ClearingKayo Chingonyi86 Kumukanda86 The Colour of James Brown’s Scream87 Nyaminyami: ‘water can crash and water can flow’88 Nyaminyami: epilogueRishi Dastidar90 The Brexit Book of the Dead91 Time takes a moment92 Neptune’s concrete crash helmetEdward Doegar94 from The English Lyric I94 from The English Lyric II95 After After RemainderInua Ellams97 from The Half God of Rainfall (Act One, Book I)Sarah Howe102 Sometimes I think103 Relativity104 from In the Chinese Ceramics GalleryAdam Lowe109 Gingerella’s Date111 Elegy for the Latter-day Teen Wilderness Years112 Reynardine for RedEileen Pun115 Studio Apartment: Eyrie116 Longways / CrosswiseWarsan Shire120 BackwardsROUND 1Rowyda Amin125 Genius Loci125 We Go Wandering at Night and Are Consumed by FireMalika Booker130 My Ghost in the Witness StandJanet Kofi-Tsekpo135 Yellow Iris136 Streets136 The Wilton DiptychMir Mahfuz Ali138 Isn’t139 My SalmaNick Makoha142 Hollywood Africans143 Mecca144 JFKShazea Quraishi147 The Taxidermist attends to her work149 In the Branches of your VoiceRoger Robinson152 Halibun for the Onlookers153 Woke153 Lisbon154 Returnee155 BloodDenise Saul157 The Room Between Us158 A Daughter’s Perspective159 Stone Altar160 Golden GroveSeni Seneviratne162 Lightkeeping163 The Devil’s Rope164 The Weight of the WorldKaren McCarthy Woolf166 Excerpts from Un/SafeESSAYSRaymond Antrobus173 Bird Song and ResonanceMona Arshi179 Writing through a PandemicLeo Boix185 Multilingual Writing and Translation: A Poetics of ResistanceJay Bernard190 Manifesto: Stranger in the archivesMalika Booker194 She Will Name Herself Ghost: She Will Haul Up a Poetic Courtroom and There Shall Be a ReckoningRishi Dastidar205 Wanted: a screwball poetics. On why we should try to find comedy in poetryWill Harris216 Bad DreamsNick Makoha218 The Black MeticMomtaza Mehri224 An Emptying: A GatheringKaren McCarthy Woolf228 It is lovely when…Diaspora poetics & the zuihitsuInua Ellams239 On time, money and music246 Acknowledgements