The work itself is quite simply inspired by being human and then the sensory experience of sight and taste. It still goes on as it is just one chapter out of three. I’m excited to see where it takes me.
We are hugely proud to share the news that Tomi Adegbayibi is on the shortlist for the Michael Marks Poetry Award for her Muscaliet pamphlet Colours & Tea (Human). The judges were similarly impressed by Tomi’s poetry and the overall conception of the pamphlet:
‘We open the first poem and we are in a forest; next we come home and make tea. “We are born and we die. Everything else is hazy, human, and hazy.” What comes in between these forest green and deep black brackets is a poetic journey in which the delicate attention with which one brews and sips tea is unflinchingly brought to the situations of human terrors and agonies. The syntax uncurls as a tealeaf and the images whirl; Tomi Adegbayibi’s voice comes through blazing with sympathy and vigour.’
We spoke to Tomi about the fantastic news;
Being shortlisted came as a total surprise to me, it only sunk in when I was stood up there reading from my pamphlet that I realised how much of an honour it was/is. Hearing such talented poets read and being counted amongst them was a ‘pinch me moment’.
Many congratulations Tomi!