tender, political, simultaneously exuberant and mournful, and lovingly populated with family of every definition’ — Safia Elhillo

lisa luxx’s debut poetry collection is an examination of the tender violence that pools in all our states of wanting; from our intimacies to our uprisings. It searches the grief of our longing, from the eyes of displacement; carrying her experience in foster care, adoption, and as a mixed-heritage daughter of the Arab diaspora.

The poems in this collection follow a lesbian love affair as revolution erupts around and within. Drawing on old Arabic folk tales such as Majnun Layla, luxx re-imagines them through a queer lens. The poet tries to understand her gendered capacity to love, as she takes a feminist gaze to the role of sons and mothers, inspired by a brutal attack she witnessed where she found herself asking ‘what does it mean to recognise yourself in the beast?’

Fetch Your Mother’s Heart ultimately grasps for what is beyond our reach. Using powerful imagery, narrative, the dinner table and the gods — this is a potent response to our political epoch.

‘luxx writes beautifully and with heart about hope and unease, ancestry and the future’ — Zeina Hashem Beck

‘it is clear that luxx is a new force in literature...She is fearless and fierce, universal and unique.’  — Lemn Sissay