Kumukanda

Winner of the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2018

Shortlisted for the 2017 Costa Book Awards Poetry Award

Translating as 'initiation', kumukanda is the name given to the rites a young boy from the Luvale tribe must pass through before he is considered a man.

The poems of Kayo Chingonyi's remarkable debut explore this passage: between two worlds, ancestral and contemporary; between the living and the dead; between the gulf of who he is and how he is perceived.

Underpinned by a love of music, language and literature, here is a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once.

'[A] wonderful debut... A subtle and affecting, lyrical and powerful collection that explores boyhood, rites of passage, the ancient and the modern world' - Jackie Kay