Description
From lips and warmed cheeks to silk and falling leaves, the subjects of Z.R. Ghani’s poems radiate with redness. Sometimes a cloak, often a shining symbol, Ghani’s reds are sacred and dazzling: pomegranates ripening to jewels and perfectly-placed bindis shining like suns.
But something darker lurks beneath the ruby depths. A city is held hostage by a heatwave, a flame is lit in a dark room, a ballerina twists inside a jewellery box.
As though developing photographs, Ghani shines a deep light over her poems as a tool to slowly make the unseen visible, the unsaid audible. This is a debut book rich with desire, shame, grief, faith, love, and at the forefront of it all: the colour red.
Cover & illustrations by Louise Weir.
Praise for In the Name of Red
‘For Z.R. Ghani the colour red is the Borgesian aleph, the core, the sump, the source of everything: her own myths, narratives and traumas are cast in its supernal light. Her instrument is the finely honed and pellucid lyric, without the slightest hint of effort, overstatement or pretension. In the Name of Red is an exciting and highly sophisticated debut collection and Z.R Ghani is one to look out for.’ – Tim Liardet
‘Z. R. Ghani is one of my favourite contemporary poets. Her highly poetic work feels tightly controlled and crafted, yet it leaves you breathless. This debut collection with the Emma Press, with all its freshness and originality, is one to savour.’ – Matthew M. C. Smith
‘Ghani’s work in this vivid and unusual pamphlet is proof that the cloying effects of “the canon” have been left behind: the writer has taken what she needed and is navigating her own fiery, energetic and visionary world.‘ – Carol Rumens, The Guardian
‘...in these poems, there is the suggestion of a spirit seeking to tear itself away from bodily ties so that it can wander off into wild experience…’ – Ewan Smith, reader
‘These are impactful and insightful poems bursting at the seams with emotional impact and arresting imagery.’ – Julia Webb, Under the Radar (Issue 33)
‘These are rich poems that luxuriate in sensorial language and imagery. Ghani’s world is full of rivers, forests and moons, as well as intimate family dramas and psychic topographies […] These are poems about the ways we are coloured and shaded by our dense emotional lives.’ – Christopher Lloyd, The Poetry Review (Autumn 2024)
