Mutabani & []ther Poems

Winner of an Eric Gregory Award

if I die here in the marshes     de-melanated me will hunch up

my limbs     my body becoming traffic cone     bright

against tarmac noir     as if to say     turn lest you wish to become this

Mutabani & [ ]ther Poems is a work of clear-sighted love and deeply human warmth. With assured use of Luganda and arresting formal flair, Francis-Xavier Mukiibi’s award-winning debut pamphlet explores what it means to belong to this world and to one another.

‘With its free and confident use of Luganda, Francis-Xavier Mukiibi conjures a Bantu boyhood into a beautiful music that moves effortlessly from detail to a sense of the global. This is a new, very rich sound in poetry and a memorable description of youth!’ Gwyneth Lewis

‘Poised, surreal, and unafraid of strangeness, Mukiibi’s vivid poetic eye has the ability to shape meaning from the most granular of images. Mutabani & [ ]ther Poems heralds the coming of a brilliant voice.’ Victoria Adukwei Bulley

‘Reading each poem in this collection is akin to discovering a bidirectional loophole between worlds. I raised my head up and down like an agama lizard in a Bantu sunset, admiring Francis-Xavier’s talent for bringing the mundane to life.’ Eric Ngalle Charles

‘A glorious, searing pamphlet. The poems leap from the page, utterly alive with sound and with language, with beauty and with storytelling, with curiosity and with craft. This is a powerful voice and an expansive and atmospheric read.’ Cecilia Knapp

‘Beneath the Sahara sun, a new Ugandan poet is forged from the clay.’ Nick Makoha