Another Way to Split Water
By (Author) Alycia Pirmohamed
Birlinn General
Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
8th December 2022
1st September 2022
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Poetry by individual poets
Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards)
Migration, immigration and emigration
Travel writing
821.92
Long-listed for Jhalak Prize 2023
Paperback
96
Width 130mm, Height 195mm, Spine 10mm
130g
Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023
In Alycia Pirmohameds debut collection,Another Way to Split Water, a womans body expands and contracts across the page, fog uncoils at the fringes of a forest, and water in all its forms cascades into metaphors of longing and separation just as often as it signals inheritance, revival, and recuperation. Language unfolds into unforgettable and arresting imagery, offering a map toward self-understanding that is deeply rooted in place.
These poems are a lyrical exploration of how ancestral memory reforms and transforms throughout generations, through stories told and retold, imagined and reimagined. It is a meditation on womanhood, belonging, faith, intimacy, and the natural world.
Pirmohamed is an immensely gifted poet Eduardo C. Corral
'An electric, taut, and glimmering achievement Aria Aber
'Pirmohamed writes with a flow which is rarely interrupted. She has a fine ear for the musicality in words and knows exactly where a line should turn'
-- Susan Mansfield * The Scotsman *'Pirmohameds achievements speak for themselves ... each poem is crafted, each word perfectly placed, flowing into one another. Dreamlike, brimming with ideas, its a collection that engulfs you, invites you to read more, to discover new jewels on each read'
-- Heather McDaid * The Skinny *'In Another Way to Split Water a reader gets to taste arrival before arrival, a form of tenderness that refracts: "an inherited vanishing/through the slit of a dream"'
-- Bhanu Kapil'Pirmohamed is an immensely gifted poet'
-- Eduardo C. Corral'An electric, taut, and glimmering achievement'
-- Aria Aber'You will want to map the navigations of these poems. You will be compelled to orbit their magnetic and inimitable oscillations'
-- Shivanee Ramlochan'[Another Way to Split Water] inspired me so much. So many things I will think about differently now, from nature to form'
-- Tice Cin, author of Keeping the House'[Pirmohamed's] language flows in elegant, mysterious ways, telling tales of heritage, history and belonging.'
-- Toni Velikova, Scottish Poetry Library'[Pirmohamed's] language flows in elegant, mysterious ways, telling tales of heritage, history and belonging'
* Bookseller *'An extraordinary collection... it's one that I'm very much looking forward to returning to'
* Glass Bookshop Radio *'Another Way to Split Water is an homage to family, the natural world, and storytelling'
-- Rebecca Mangra * Room Magazine *'[a] lyrical exploration of stories told and retold, ancestral memories reformed and transformed, and the imagined and reimagined'
-- Hari Alluri * Massy Arts *'Lyrical and achingly beautiful... Another Way to Split Water is shot through with love, beauty, and deeply tender moments that live on far beyond the page.'
-- Roshni Gallagher * Gutter Magazine *'The poems in this book draw you in with their incredibly vivid imagery of wilderness and water'
* Fourteen Poems magazine *Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the author of the pamphlets Hinge and Faces that Fled the Wind, and the collaborative essay Second Memory, which was co-authored with Pratyusha. She is the co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, a co-organiser of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Program, and she currently teaches on the MSt. Creative Writing at the University of Cambridge. Alycia has held post-doctoral positions at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of Liverpool, and she received an MFA from the University of Oregon and a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize and the 2020 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award.