Citizen of Nowhere by Emma Joliffe

Where do you call home?
Wherever we live, we all weave stories into places, draw ghost-maps of memories that we overlay on them, thick as cobwebs, light as air. Everyone’s maps are different.

This collection starts with poems of place, firmly pinned to the map, and then widens out, until we have poems that have no place at all, and are themselves citizens of nowhere.

This is a collection for anyone who’s ever felt a sense of being home, amongst the singing sirens of the city or in the calm of a quiet place.

It is also for anyone who has felt stateless: able to transcend the lines on a map, the borders and barbed wire, and connect to other humans everywhere.

“These poems contain razor sharp observation, both funny and dark at once, this is a startling debut and Joliffe is one to watch." - Salena Godden