With so many bold and dynamic expressions of what it means to be a woman shared across the arts, it is safe to say that depictions of womanhood in poetry have never been linear.

With her first published collection of poems Locating Strongwoman,  by Nigerian British poet, playwright and lawyer Tolu Agbelusi, has created a portrait of unperformed femininity and a celebration of what it means to inhabit all of yourself as a woman without boundaries.

Eschewing the stereotypical portrayal of the “Strong Woman” and the even more loaded “Strong Black Woman”, these poems invite the reader to interrogate the protagonists and find in their stories a quiet strength.

Register to attend the official virtual book launch here

‘I wrote Locating Strongwoman for myself and for women and girls like me who know or need to be reminded that strength can and most often does exist in ordinary living—away from a podium, or the fabricated perfection that is sold to us as womanhood. These poems speak to unperformed living—the joy and the searching, the falling and the failing, silence as language, the learning and unlearning of our conditioning and the triumph of inhabiting everything that we are without apology as the ultimate epitome of strength’. – Tolu Agbelusi

A much-anticipated debut from Agbelusi, it has been described as “a book filled with want, love and the lack thereof. It will leave you thinking and feeling long after you turn its last page” —Peter Kahn, author of Little Kings and co-editor of The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honouring 

Locating Strongwoman has been published in the UK by award winning independent publisher, Jacaranda Books, (during National Poetry Day, 1st October) as part of their #Twentyin2020 initiative which sees 20 Black authors published under their imprint in 2020.

About Tolu:

Tolu Agbelusi is a poet, playwright, educator and lawyer. A Callaloo Fellow, she was shortlisted for the White Review Poetry Prize and has been published internationally in Journals and anthologies.

Where to buy:

• Jacaranda Books
• Waterstones
• Amazon
• Foyles
• Blackwell’s

Header Image courtesy of Tolu Agbelusi