Warsan Shire
| Warsan Shire ورسان شرى |
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|---|---|
| Born | Warsan Shire 1 August 1988 (age 28) Kenya |
| Occupation | Poet, writer |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | Somali |
| Notable works | Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth (2011) |
| Notable awards | Brunel University African Poetry Prize, Young Poet Laureate for London |
| Website | |
| WarsanShire |
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Warsan Shire (Somali: Warsan Shire, Arabic: ورسان شرى, born 1 August 1988) is a London-based Somali writer, poet, editor and teacher. She has received the Brunel University's African Poetry Prize, chosen from a shortlist of six candidates out of a total 655 entries. As of January 30, 2017, her words "No one leaves home unless/home is the mouth of a shark", from the poem "Home", were called "a rallying call for refugees and their advocates".
Born on 1 August 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents, Shire emigrated with her family to the United Kingdom at the age of one. She has four siblings. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing. As of 2015, she primarily resides in Los Angeles.
In 2011, she released Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth, a poetry pamphlet published by Flipped eye. Her full collection is to be released in 2016, also through flipped eye.
Shire has read her poetry in various artistic venues throughout the world, including in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, North America, South Africa and Kenya. Her poems have been published in various literary publications, including the Poetry Review, Magma and Wasafiri. Additionally, Shire's verse has been featured in the Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt, 2011) and Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe, 2014) collections. They have also been translated into a number of languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Estonian.
As of 2016, Shire is working on her first full-length poetry collection, having put out a limited release pamphlet called Her Blue Body in 2015. She serves as the poetry editor at SPOOK magazine and she teaches poetry workshops both globally and online for cathartic and aesthetic purposes.
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