Bloodaxe Books is set to release the poetry anthology Versus Versus: 100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets, edited by UK poet and disability advocate Rachael Boast. This collection brings together 100 poets from across the globe united by their experiences as deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent individuals, including 10 authors from across the African continent. Versus Versus was released on May 22 in the UK & Europe and will be coming out July 22 in the US.

Versus Versus offers a powerful and necessary redress, addressing misrepresentations and misapprehensions surrounding disability and neurodivergence. Through poems that span a wide variety of styles and forms, the anthology challenges cultural, medical, and political agendas, providing a unique and vital space for voices that have often been marginalized.

The collection features poets from diverse backgrounds and traditions, with contributions from poets as varied as haiku, renga, sonnet, villanelle, prose poem, performance poetry, and even sign language.

Contributing to the anthology are African poets Iyanuoluwa Adenle (Nigeria), JK Anowe (Nigeria), Erez Bitton (Algeria/Morocco/Israeli), Kwame Dawes (Ghana/Jamaica), Megan Fernandes (Tanzania/India/US), I.S. Jones (Nigeria/US), Mishka Hoosen (South Africa), Sarah Lubala (Congo/South Africa), Jack Mapanje (Malawi/UK), and Chisom Okafor (Nigeria).

Okafor was also part of the Advocacy and Advisory Panel, along with Karthika Naïr and Daniel Sluman, that helped in putting this anthology together.

Rachael Boast, the anthology’s editor, is a British writer and disability advocate, who navigates Ichthyosis and related conditions. Boast has published four collections of poetry, including Sidereal (2011), Pilgrim’s Flower (2013), Void Studies (2016), and Hotel Raphael (2021). Her work has appeared in several prominent anthologies, including Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches, 2017) and Staying Human (Bloodaxe, 2020).

For more information, and to pre-order your copy of Versus Versus, go to the Bloodaxe Books website.