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Warsan Shire

Goodreads Author

Born

in Nairobi, Kenya

Twitter

warsan_shire

Genre

Poetry

Member Since

July 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/warsanshire

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Warsan Shire is a 24 year old Kenyan-born Somali poet, writer and educator based in London. Born in 1988, Warsan has read her work extensively all over Britain and internationally - including recent readings in South Africa, Italy, Germany, Canada, North America and Kenya- and her début book, 'TEACHING MY MOTHER HOW TO GIVE BIRTH' (flipped eye), was published in 2011. Her poems have been published in Wasafiri, Magma and Poetry Review and in the anthology 'The Salt Book of Younger Poets' (Salt, 2011). She is the current poetry editor at SPOOK magazine. In 2012 she represented Somalia at the Poetry Parnassus, the festival of the world poets at the Southbank, London. She is a Complete Works II poet. Her poetry has been translated into Italian, ...more

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Warsan Shire’s books

Average rating: 4.24 · 31,526 ratings · 3,710 reviews · 14 distinct works • Similar authors

	Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth 4.24 avg rating — 20,931 ratings — published 2011 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head 4.21 avg rating — 8,510 ratings — published 2022 — 26 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Our Men Do Not Belong To Us 4.22 avg rating — 1,131 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The BreakBeat Poets, Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me by Fatimah Asghar (Editor, Contributor), Safia Elhillo (Goodreads Author) (Editor, Contributor), Aria Aber (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 4.34 avg rating — 415 ratings — published 2019 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Her Blue Body 4.61 avg rating — 251 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Your Family, Your Body by Malika Booker, Sharon Olds, Warsan Shire (Goodreads Author) 4.11 avg rating — 275 ratings — published 2017 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	New Daughters of Africa by Margaret Busby (Editor), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Patience Agbabi 4.27 avg rating — 207 ratings — published 2019 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Warsan vs Melancholy 4.64 avg rating — 137 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Seven New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook boxed set by T.J. Dema, Clifton Gachagua, Tsitsi Jaji 4.43 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Utopia [Thirteen] by Warsan Shire (Goodreads Author), Tabish Khair, Bina Shah (Goodreads Author) 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Warsan Shire is currently reading

Song of Solomon

by Toni Morrison

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Aug 11, 2009 12:41AM

Warsan Shire is currently reading

The Book of Other People

by Zadie Smith

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Jul 29, 2009 07:33PM

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Warsan Shire wants to read Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 04, 2023 05:13AM · 7 likes · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings

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Quotes by Warsan Shire (?)

“My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.”
― Warsan Shire

2947 likes

“It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.”
― Warsan Shire

tags: beautiful, existence, feminism, self-esteem

2328 likes

“You want me to be a tragic backdrop so that you can appear to be illuminated, so that people can say ‘Wow, isn’t he so terribly brave to love a girl who is so obviously sad?’ You think I’ll be the dark sky so you can be the star? I’ll swallow you whole.”
― Warsan Shire

1745 likes

See all Warsan Shire's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read in July/Aug 2018 for Eastern Africa?
(Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe)

A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

8 votes, 17.8%

Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai

6 votes, 13.3%

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed

5 votes, 11.1%

Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o

4 votes, 8.9%

Children of the Revolution by Dinaw Mengestu

3 votes, 6.7%

Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto

3 votes, 6.7%

Nairobi Heat by Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ

3 votes, 6.7%

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

3 votes, 6.7%

From a Crooked Rib by Nuruddin Farah

2 votes, 4.4%

Mine to Win by Hiwot Teffera

2 votes, 4.4%

City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence

2 votes, 4.4%

Green City in the Sun by Barbara Wood

2 votes, 4.4%

Yohannes Ishi by Nabse Bamato

1 vote, 2.2%

Rwanda, Inc.: How a Devastated Nation Became an Economic Model for the Developing World by Patricia Crisafulli

1 vote, 2.2%

45 total votes

3 comments

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