Hazel Press newsletter: Spring 2024
‘Daughter Wound’ published today, Nkateko Masinga shortlisted for Evaristo Prize for African poetry, shout-out to stockists of Hazel Press books. Plus the latest from the Hazel Press blog
Today we publish Daughter Wound by Nkateko Masinga. This collection of 15 poems explores a young, Black, South African woman’s negotiation of intimate relationships: sexual, familial and political.
One of the poems, ‘self-portrait in utopia’, has just been shortlisted for the 2024 Evaristo Prize for African poetry.
Nkateko says: ‘This book stems from my lifelong attempt to tend to the wounds of daughterhood. It is a love letter to the women who have raised me, the women who continue to nurture me and the woman I am becoming. I wrote Daughter Wound while reflecting on my mid to late 20s and how they reframed my understanding of the mother-daughter relationship: as an adult I have cultivated a newfound empathy for my mother and the struggles that she overcame in order to raise three daughters.’
‘My early 30s have felt like a gentle preparation for the possibility of motherhood, but I am acknowledging that I need to heal before I can embark on that journey. Daughter Wound is my set of training wheels; I am learning how my girlhood, womanhood and daughterhood have influenced how I show up in my relationships with people and that my triumphs and traumas will impact the lives of the children I may choose to have in the future. Whether that impact will be a positive or negative one depends on how I undertake my healing journey in the present.’
Cover artist for Daughter Wound
The cover design of Daughter Wound features ‘Kin’, a painting by UK artist Anna Ilsley, which was commissioned especially for this collection. Anna’s work challenges the construct of the male gaze and offers a feminist disruption of patriarchal images.
As with all our books, Daughter Wound is printed in the UK using vegetable inks on 100% UK recycled paper. It has a glue-free thread binding. You can order paperback or PDF copies direct from our website here.
Nkateko reads
Listen to Nkateko reading one of the poems from Daughter Wound: 'My lover pulls me off the train tracks'.
Bookshops
We’re hugely grateful to the handful of wonderful independent bookshops and galleries who stock Hazel Press titles - as you know, we do not sell our books on Amazon or through any of the big chains.
We’ve recently added a list of them all to our website here. Do support them if you can.
Hazel Press blog - Recited into Water, Remembered Landscapes
We’ve posted two new entries on the blog so far this spring - Ben Verinder offers three new poems about rivers and water, and Maria Isakova Bennett reflects on the importance of notebooks in making her work.
Daphne and Sara