Survival Takes a Wild Imagination

In the powerful follow up to her critically acclaimed debut collection, poet and activist Fariha Róisín is writing, praying, clawing, and scratching her way out of the grips of generational trauma on the search for the freedom her mother never received and the kindness she couldn't give.

This collection of poetry asks a kaleidoscope of questions: Who is my family? My father? How do I love a mother no longer here? Can I see myself? What does it mean to be Bangladeshi? What is a border? Innately hopeful and resolutely strong, Fariha's voice turns to the optimism and beauty inherent in rebuilding the self, and in turn, the world that the self moves through. Ubiquitous to the human experience, Survival Takes a Wild Imagination is an illuminating breath of fresh air from a powerful poetic voice.

"’Survival is remembering yourself,’ writes Fariha Róisín, and, ‘To quiet the sounds of/scarcity/I had to learn that/I was abundant.’ I love these lines for their strength and sensitivity to the immense process of self-restoration that survival requires. These are poems that travel, titillate, testify, and teach. These are poems written by a poet insistent on building bridges from grief to love — it is through such movement, Róisín suggests, that we may chart a course towards a future in which survival gives more than it costs.” Tarfia Faizullah, author of Seam and Registers of Illuminated Villages

“Roisin's poems are more than poems. They are ladders out of lit fires. They are bodies in their gravity and sensuous movement.” Sophie Strand, author of The Flowering Wand and The Madonna Secret

Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities, and has appeared in the New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Village Voice, and others.