Poetic conjurer and radical mythmaker, Prerana Kumar recalibrates kitchens and wombs into prophetic, dangerous, and weaponised spaces. Lush and kaleidoscopic language stimulates a hypnotic sensory overload enacting a harsh interrogation of the psychology of patriarchy and governance. This is a compelling intergenerational epic, expertly navigating a complicated cultural landscape with sonic dexterity. —Malika Booker Ixora leads us through the forking rhythms of life in the afterbirth of gendered violence. In these astonishing poems, the gift of tenderness lies in its warnings ... Ixora offers no clean reading and yolks us from the start, sticky and suffusing in its lessons about self-preservation and the impossibility of severance, luxuriant –here flowering, there lined with teeth. —Nisha Ramayya Ixora is the debut pamphlet of London-based writer Prerana Kumar. Prerana holds an MA in Creative Writing from UEA and was shortlisted for The White Review Poet’s Prize 2022. She is a winner of the Rebecca Swift Foundation’s Women Poet’s Prize 2022. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Telegraph, Magma, The White Review, and The Poetry Review. The cover art for Ixora is by Anupa Gardner.
