DREAMING UP HER OWN SALVATION

IN A STUNNING NEW MEMOIR, HOW TO SAY BABYLON, SAFIYA SINCLAIR TELLS THE STORY OF GROWING UP IN A RASTAFARIAN FAMILY IN JAMAICA, BREAKING FREE OF HER FATHER’S OPPRESSIVE CONTROL, AND FINDING HER OWN VOICE AS A WOMAN AND POET.

RENÉE H. SHEA

HAVING RITA DOVE declare you her literary “heir” is no small matter, as Safiya Sinclair is the first to acknowledge. When the New York Times Style Magazine featured inter-generational pairings of women artists in its April 2023 issue, the legendary writer and former U.S. poet laureate did just that, an experience Sinclair describes as “still surreal” to her. Dove wrote that her initial encounter with Sinclair’s poetry, in the poet’s application to the MFA program at the University of Virginia in 2012, “took the top of my head off.” She added, “I was electrified by the soul and the muscular elegance of the poems.” Sinclair’s subsequent MFA thesis led to the 2016 publication of the poetry collection Cannibal (University of Nebraska Press), which includes a subversive retelling of Shakespeare’s The…

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Poets & Writers (Digital) - 1 Issue, November/December 2023

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