Us

Product Description From the beginning, the poet was a wanderer, a storyteller, an imaginer of bridges between worlds. Zaffar Kunial is just such a poet and guide for us today. Yet his territory extends much further afield than those of the past - through Kashmir, where his father was born and now lives, to the Midlands of his mother's birth, and further north to ancestors in Orkney, as well as through language, memory and time. Already an acknowledged star of the Faber New Poets scheme, Kunial has won admirers in such measure as to ensure that Us is one of the most anticipated debuts in recent times. Across its pages, he vocalises what it means to be a human being planting your two feet upon the dizzying earth - and he does so delicately, urgently, intimately - in some of the most original and touching ways that you will read. Review 'Zaffar Kunial is a poet whose work thrills me, who makes you return to the origins of things, places, language and people again and again. He's a poet who takes traditions seriously but makes of them something entirely new - a must.' -- Jackie Kay Us by Zaffar Kunial abounds with poems which are witty, playful and heart-breaking by turns. Drawn to the place where things don't quite meet, which he describes as "a kind of abysmal underneathness/or usness/under the heights of language", his is a wondrous poetic of loopholes, portals and translations, and of the magic in-between. -- Sinead Morrissey ― Chair of the T. S. Eliot Prize judges 'Zaffar Kunial moves with grace during his quest to track the roots of his mixed-race identity in his debut collection, Us ... [His poetry] captures the confused energy of personal history with compelling force, calling out beyond the bounds of the page to draw connections in surprising places.' -- Jade Cuttle ― Poetry Review Kunial's virtuosity as a lexicographer and engineer of words is what captivates most in the poems ... Kunial shares something of Heaney's ability to find meaning and symbolism in the hearth and home. -- Declan Ryan ― Ambit 'Us provides the collection's title but not Kunial's last word: the grit that originates and animates his calm and assured-seeming poems is identity, which consists of interestingly twisted strands of connection and disconnection. ' -- Carol Rumens ― Guardian 'There's something about the precise, thoughtful, unhurried way in which he interrogates language that marks him out as a unique talent. A real find.' -- Roger Cox ― Scotsman 'Everyone in this book is honoured as complicated and contrary, while the writing of them is always subtle and deep, generous and empathetic.' -- Tim Dee ― Caught by the River Highlights of the year include the Heaney-esque lyricism of British-Indian poet Zaffar Kunial's accomplished debut Us. -- Tristram Fane Saunders ― Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year Rich in form and reverent references, Us transports the reader from the hills of Pakistan to the schoolgrounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, from George Herbert to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. -- Maria Crawford ― Financial Times, BOOKS OF THE YEAR Book Description Original, touching and much-anticipated first collection from star of the Faber New Poets scheme. About the Author Zaffar Kunial was born in Birmingham and lives in Hebden Bridge. He published a pamphlet in the Faber New Poets series in 2014 and spent that year as the Wordsworth Trust Poet-in-Residence. Since his first public reading, of 'Hill Speak' at the 2011 National Poetry Competition awards, he has spoken at various literature festivals and in programmes for BBC radio, and won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for his poem 'The Word'.