Inheritance

A Poetry Book Society Recommendation
Inheritance is a profoundly moving exploration of what is passed down by our forebearers, what is left behind when we lose someone, and what we learn from being loved. Jasmine Cooray holds our most fiercely-guarded myths to the light, refracted through second-generation diaspora, family legend and life-changing loss. Her poems embrace both the quiet and the storms within. They sing of self-belief rising to the surface as drowning feels imminent, of desire and how it can cultivate hope. This is a timeless debut: wise, wild and empowering, a lodestar for survival.
"A strident, playful language dance through life's more challenging parts, always towards something transcendent." Anthony Joseph, Sonnets for Albert, Winner of the 2022 T.S. Eliot Prize
"Intimate, vulnerable, poignant and provocative. Inheritance is a stunning debut brimming with tenderness, authenticity and heart." Salena Godden, Mrs Death Misses Death

Jasmine Cooray is a poet, psychotherapist and arts facilitator. She has been a Women of the World Festival speaker, BBC Performing Arts Fellow and Writer-in-Residence at the National University of Singapore, and has delivered creative writing projects for The Barbican, the Southbank Centre, First Story, The Arvon Foundation and the National Literacy Trust. Her pamphlet Everything We Don’t Say was published by Tall Lighthouse in 2009. Inheritance is her first full collection of poetry.