The US edition of Quiet by British-born Ghanaian poet Victoria Adukwei Bulley is out January January 31, 2023. Originally published last month by Faber & Faber, the collection of poetry is finding its way to US readers thanks to Knopf. The poetry explores the liberating possibilities in blocking out the noise and focusing on “black interiority, intimacy, and selfhood.” 

Bulley has been on the global African poetry scene for quite a while. She is a Brunel International African Poetry Prize shortlistee. Her chapbook is part of the New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Nne) edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. She is an alumna of Barbican Young Poets, “an artist development initiative and community for those who wish to explore what’s possible for their poetry and creative expression.” Quiet is a debut poetry collection.

Read the publisher’s note: 

Victoria Adukwei Bulley’s debut collection, Quiet, circles around ideas of black interiority, intimacy and selfhood, playing at the the tensions between the impulse to guard one’s ‘inner life’ and the knowledge that, as Audre Lorde writes, ‘your silence will not protect you’. The poems teem with grace and dignity, are artful in their shapes, sharp in their intelligence, and possessing of a good ear, finely attuned to the sonics that fascinate and motivate the writing ‘at the lower end of sound’.

British-Zambian poet Kayo Chingonyi says the poems are well-crafted and impactful, noting that they are “technically assured, sonically resonant. Booker Prize author Bernardine Evaristo praises the collection for its “melodious versatility, intellect and dexterity.” On Bulley, she remarks: “This is her debut collection, but she arrives fully formed.”

Congrats to Bulley on expanding the audience for her work. While you wait for January 31 to come, listen to her read her poems on poetryarchive.org.

 

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Preorder Quiet: Amazon | bookshop.org