In the Name of Red

From lips and warmed cheeks to silk and falling leaves, the subjects of Z.R. Ghani's poems radiate with redness. Sometimes a cloak, often a shining symbol, Ghani's reds are sacred and dazzling: pomegranates ripening to jewels and perfectly-placed bindis shining like suns. But something darker lurks beneath the ruby depths. A city is held hostage by a heatwave, a flame is lit in a dark room, a ballerina twists inside a jewellery box. As though developing photographs, Ghani shines a deep light over her poems as a tool to slowly make the unseen visible, the unsaid audible. This is a debut book rich with desire, shame, grief, faith, love, and at the forefront of it all: the colour red.

Z. R. Ghani was born in London in 1990 and grew up in Mauritius. She studied Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Her work has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in journals including Magma, Willowherb Review, Square Wheel Press and Black Bough Poetry. In 2021 her first collection of poems was shortlisted for the Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition. 'In the Name of Red' is her first poetry pamphlet.