Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Forward Prize for Best First Collection: “Wife” by Tiphanie Yanique


The poetry of Forward Prize winner Tiphanie Yanique may redefine words like “arresting,” “jarring,” and “mind-altering.”

Yanique’s Wife won the Forward Prize, given by the Forward Arts Foundation in the United Kingdom, for best first collection. As the title suggests, it’s a collection of poems about becoming a wife, being a wife, thinking and rethinking the meaning of the idea of wife – colored and shaped by a Caribbean context.

We find the drudgery of housework and considerations of cheating on one’s husband. We find the romance of elopement and musings of divorce in a happy marriage. We find musings about one’s one family and experiences in common with all families. And by the end of the collection we understand that are of these seeming contradictions are held together, even if in tension, in every relationship and marriage.


To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

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