Warsan Shire is a British poet and activist. Born in Nairobi to Somali parents in 1988, she was raised in London. She is the author of four poetry collections: teaching my mother how to give birth, published by Flipped Eye Press in 2011, Our Men Do Not Belong to Us, published by Slapering Hol Press in 2014, Her Blue Body, also published by Flipped Eye Press in 2015, and Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems, published by Random House in 2022. Shire won the Brunel African Poetry Prize in 2013 and was named the Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014. She is also the youngest inductee to the Royal Society of Literature. In 2016, Shire's work gained mainstream recognition when excerpts from her poems were featured in Beyoncé Knowles' album Lemonade. Additionally, she wrote the short film, Brave Girl Rising, which depicts the lives of Somali girls living in one of Africa's largest refugee camps. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Shire described her work as trying to evoke the “surrealism of everyday immigrant life—one day you are in your country, having fun, drinking mango juice, and the next day you are in the Underground in London and your children are speaking to you in a language you don’t understand.” Among many themes, her poetry often discusses migration and the refugee experience, particularly in the context of family and romance. Her work also commonly features women who are experiencing abuse, or struggling to leave unhealthy relationships.
"Backwards" is a poem by writer Warsan Shire about familial strife and the desire to reverse time. First published in 2011 by flipped eye publishing, the poem appeared in Shire's collection Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. Shire is a poet and...
Warsan Shire is a young (born in 1988) London-based Kenyan-born female writer from Somali whose strength as a poet lies in her straightforwardness. Most of her poems, like the one is question, “Difficult Names”, are in prose, which defies the...
"For Women Who Are 'Difficult' to Love" is a poem by British writer and poet Warsan Shire about the problems experienced by women whose partners seek to limit their expression of self. Published on Shire's blog in 2012, the poem describes a...
Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet whose work has risen in prominence since some of her verse was featured in the singer Beyoncé's film Lemonade, released in 2016. Her debut collection—entitled teaching my mother how to give birth—was well...
"The House" is a poem by Warsan Shire. It was published in 2011 in Shire's first poetry collection, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. It focuses on womanhood, comparing a woman's body to a house equipped with different rooms that serve...
"The Unbearable Weight of Staying" is a poem written by Warsan Shire, an acclaimed poet and social activist. This poem appears in her book Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, which was published during 2011 by Flipped Eye. In pages saturated...
