New from Materials: Nhã Thuyên and Askia Touré

Very pleased to announce the publication of two new books from Materials: dừng giấu cơn điên / don’t hide the madness by Nhã Thuyên, translated by Kaitlin Rees, and Songhai! (50th Anniversary Edition) by Askia Touré. More details of both books can be found below, and they are available to order at the following links (payment via paypal):

--Nhã Thuyên

--Askia Touré

To those of you who pre-ordered Songhai! when it was initially announced last year, I will be sending out the copies shortly, with apologies for the long delay.

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NHÃ THUYÊN—ĐỪNG GIẤU CƠN ĐIÊN / DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS
Translated by Kaitlin Rees
Published July 2024
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Nhã Thuyên’s đừng giấu cơn điên / don’t hide the madness contains eight poems excerpted from the forthcoming book vị nước (taste of water). To read this work is to be wrenched out of oneself and into the opening and closing world of language: a world in equal parts vegetal, liquid, human, stone, at once bordered river and open sea, enclosed maze and open field; a labyrinth, but a labyrinth of the utmost clarity; a rising or collapsing building made of words that’s not a ‘dwelling’ so much as a refusal to dwell, which is its loneliness and bereftness and consolation and strength, all at once. “Steps here pulled forth by some line of poetry out of time”, such work “fabricate[s] a bed out of sea, build[s] a house out of tremendous immensity”. It’s the result of a lifelong investigation of the Vietnamese language, deep, joyous, scrupulous and sometimes painful; of a lifelong investigation of the whole deep field of history and time as it’s lived deep within the person and in the field beyond the personal that poetic language affords us. This is a realm, not of simple freedom, but of the struggle for the fullest record and the fullest measure towards which a poet can strive. Don’t hide the madness. Don’t be at peace. [D.G.]

A5, perfect-bound, colour covers, 60 pages.

(Bilingual Vietnamese-English.)

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ASKIA TOURÉ—SONGHAI!

Published July 2024 

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Askia Touré was there at the birth of the Black Arts Movement. He was there at the birth of Black Power. In the era of decolonisation, Touré’s visionary poems and essays spoke powerfully to the Tricontinental struggle against the forces of colonialism and white supremacy in Latin America, Asia and Africa. They continue to speak to this struggle today. This 50th anniversary edition of Touré’s visionary 1972 book Songhai! is his first UK book publication and provides a powerful guide to the states and stages of Black radical politics not only during and up to 1972, but into our uncertain future.

 

Reprinted with a new foreword and original preface by Askia Touré, original introduction by John Oliver Killens, and a new introduction by David Grundy. Illustrations by Abdul Rahman.

 

A5, perfect-bound, colour covers, illustrated, 122 pages.