SPLIT by Amani Saeed

This book is split into two. One half is about what it means to be a constant other, what it means to be perceived as both a foreigner and a westerner, a Muslim who is ‘not Muslim enough’. The other half is about abuse and the aftermath: trauma, healing, and learning how to love differently. Both halves are about coming to terms with a patchwork self that is forever being split and stitched back together.
---

‘Amani Saeed has grown a new tongue to replace that which was surgically removed by institutional racism, loss and womanhood. That tongue will become a voice for the lost, the dispossessed and the furious dreamers of a displaced generation. Striking, strong and loud.’ - Joelle Taylor

‘Amani Saeed examines that liminal space between being feminist and Muslim, Muslim and American, British and Indian, and the space between racism and privilege. She is not making this space weak, slippery or infirm, but instead makes it as strong as a plinth from which to call out bullshit on both sides. Isn’t that what we are
supposed to do as poets, call out bullshit when we see it whatever side it’s on? A brave and essential debut.’ - Roger Robinson

‘Amani’s work gives her reader a home, a place to rest and seek comfort. In her work you can find beauty in even the ugliest of places; she deftly demonstrates that there are no real binaries and her work reflects vividly how we live in a world that is as complex, painful and as wonderful as her imagination.’ - Shagufta Igbal