We wanted to make sure the writers amongst our community are fully inspired this warm and muggy season for some writing, perhaps in preparation for our annual poetry contest that’s now open, so we invited poet and artist Manahil Bandukwala to share some of her favourite poetry with us.
The Emerging Writer Award is open to anyone published in a given year in Room, who has not already had a book published. The award comes with a cash prize of $500. Room’s Tamara Jong spoke with our 2019 winner, Manahil Bandukwala, about inspiration for her poems “White marble atop hill” and “Maps”, her earliest writing memory and why she finds writing in notebooks so freeing.
Strip the skin off my body and hold
me tight. Take this ugly brown shell, burn
scar, thrown to sea. Let waves batter
me against rocks, shark teeth ravage carcass,
oil spill on pale water.
In this issue:
Selina Boan, Jenna Butler, Leonarda Carranza, Carolina Corcoran, Šari Dale, Marisol Diaz, Sarah Ens, Paola Ferrante, Katie Fewster-Yan, Hannah Hackney, Lori Hahnel, Natalie Homer, Liz Iversen, Jac Jenkins, Jaslyn Marshall, Laura McGavin, Emily McKibbon, Alessandra Naccarato, Ezi Odozor, Caitlin Prince, Rebecca Salazar, Ellie Sawatzky, Alysia Sawchyn, Farihah Aliyah Shah, Josephine Sloyan, Tanya R. Ward, jiaqing wilson-yang, Elana Wolff
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