Reading and interview - Warsan Shire

Poetry International is proud to welcome British poet Warsan Shire. Shire rose to global prominence when her poetry featured prominently in Beyoncé’s visual albums Lemonade and Black is King. With her vulnerable and powerful work, she touches readers of all ages on a profound level. 

Her appearance at Poetry International marks Warsan Shire’s very first visit to Rotterdam. In this exclusive session, she will be interviewed by Dean Bowen about her work and will read from her poetry. The audience will have a unique opportunity to experience this powerful, lyrical voice live. 

For those who wish to explore her work and poetics more deeply, Warsan Shire will also lead an exclusive masterclass on Friday, June 13. During this session, she will delve into her creative process, themes, and writing practice—a rare opportunity for poets, writers, and poetry enthusiasts to learn directly from an internationally acclaimed author. 

Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire is a British poet, writer, editor, and teacher. She was the first Young Poet Laureate of London. 

Shire was mentored through The Complete Works programme for poets of colour and published her first chapbook Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth at flipped eye publishing in 2011. This was followed by the limited-edition pamphlet Her Blue Body in 2015, and her debut poetry collection Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head in 2022. This collection was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her poetry has been featured in the films Lemonade and Black is King by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. 

Warsan Shire has performed and taught workshops around the world. Her poetry has been published in several literary magazines, including The Poetry Review and Wasafiri, as well as various anthologies, including Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011) and New Daughters of Africa (2019). In 2013, she received the African Poetry Prize from Brunel University, and in 2017 she was included in the Penguin Modern Poets Series. Shire’s poetry has been translated into numerous languages, including Spanish, Swedish, Italian, and Estonian.

Dean Bowen

On stage, the former city poet of Rotterdam (2019/2020) can be described as an erupting volcano. The poems in his 2018 debut Bokman (Goatman), which was awarded the C. Buddingh' Prize, are no less impassioned. Bokman can be read as a search for identity – or rather, a dissection of the layers that go to make up this complex term. What shapes a person? What shaped Dean Bowen? Language, family, origins, the diaspora. In this furious, polyphonic collection, language follows its own logic and grammar. Bowen frees the Dutch language from its constraints. Instead, he mixes different languages to create something new, similar to the way Sranantongo and Papiamentu came about. His second collection Masc:r is soon to be published by Uitgrverij Pluim.