The Emma Press acquires Rakhshan Rizwan’s second poetry collection for children, WHY IS IT CALLED A STRAWBERRY IF IT DOESN’T HAVE A STRAW?
The Emma Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of Rakhshan Rizwan’s second poetry collection for children, Why Is It Called a Strawberry If It Doesn’t Have a Straw?
Rakhshan Rizwan’s collection was one of two titles selected for publication from The Emma Press open call for submissions in February 2025, which received over 450 proposals. Worldwide rights were acquired by the publisher directly from the author.
Why Is It Called a Strawberry If It Doesn’t Have a Straw? is a lively and thoughtful collection of middle grade poetry in the voice of a seven-year-old girl. From banana slugs to bilingual word salads, Rakhshan Rizwan’s poems celebrate the power, sensitivity and wisdom of children. The book will be illustrated by Benjamin Philips, winner of the V&A Illustration for Children Award.
“A book that reminds us of the things that are at stake when the right to have a childhood is taken away.”
Author Rakhshan Rizwan says: “This book is a love letter to 6-7 year olds (who will probably say 6-7 after reading that!) all across the world, as they wiggle out of early childhood, start to form their own thoughts and opinions, and share their unfiltered insights with those around them. In a time when so many children are being genocided and harmed, in unspeakable ways, this book urges us to remember the tiny, and big, beautiful, sticky, colorful, imaginary, obvious, and un-obvious things that are at stake when the right to have a childhood is taken away.”
Georgia Wall, Director (maternity) of The Emma Press, says: “Delight, wonder, confusion, rage: Rakhshan’s poems capture the range of childhood emotions in a wonderfully thought-provoking way. As with her children’s debut My Sneezes are Perfect, the poems are complemented by the beautiful artwork of Benjamin Philips; it is an absolute pleasure to work with both Rakhshan and Benjamin on this book that will resonate with children and their grown-ups everywhere.”
Why Is It Called a Strawberry If It Doesn’t Have a Straw? will be published by The Emma Press on 20 May 2027.
Paperback ISBN: 9781915628671
About the author:
Rakhshan Rizwan is a Senior Acquisitions Editor at Elsevier where she acquires books in earth and environmental science. She has a PhD in Comparative Literature from Utrecht University. She is the author of Paisley, Europe Love me Back, and the children’s poetry collection My Sneezes are Perfect, all published by The Emma Press, as well as the monograph Kashmiri Life Narratives: Human Rights, Pleasure, and the Local Cosmopolitan (Routledge, 2020). Her poems and short stories have appeared in Aaduna, Nimrod, Postcolonial Text and Blue Lyra Review, among others. She is on the editorial team of the children’s poetry journal Tyger Tyger Magazine
About The Emma Press:
The Emma Press is an award-winning independent publishing house specialising in poetry, short fiction, essays and children’s books. It was founded by Emma Dai’an Wright in 2012 with the mission of making literature and publishing as welcoming and accessible as possible and is based in Birmingham, UK. The Emma Press was a Finalist for the British Book Awards Small Press of the Year (Midlands Region, 2024, 2025, 2026), and shortlisted for the Independent Publishers Guild Alison Morrison Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award (2024).
For further information or to request a review copy please contact:
Georgia Wall, Director (Maternity) The Emma Press | georgia@theemmapress.com
