Published in 2014
172 pages
Nayyirah Waheed is a poet and author who has published two books of poetry and has been described as “perhaps the most famous poet on Instagram.” While Waheed is a reclusive writer who doesn’t reveal many details about her life, her poetry is frequently shared through social media accounts. Her poetry is known for being “short and minimalistic” and “incredibly touching”, covering topics such as love, identity, race, and feminism
What is this book about?
“sometimes i want to say it.
and there is nothing in english. that will say it.”
The poem above epitomizes Nayyirah Waheed’s transcendence of language in her follow-up to her collection Salt. Nejma feels ethereal from cover to cover, a stark difference between the minimalistic style of her first collection. Nayyirah touches heavily on the constructs of blackness and whiteness, using the sharp contrast of the negative space and the black ink on the pages to do so. Nayyirah remains true to herself in this second collection, discussing race, the feminine and the masculine, and ultimately love in all forms.
The work in Nejma is an even combination of sweet one-liners and lengthier poems. The longer poems are thick with truth and criticism of the lack of visibility of writers of color in literature and poetry and the grief of losing an identity you never knew to the western world.
