Please make me pretty, I don’t want to die explores tactility, sound, sensuality, and intimacy. Set across the four seasons of a year, these fresh and original poems by Tawanda Mulalu combine an inviting confessional voice and offbeat imagery, and offer an appealing mixture of seriousness and humor.
The speaker of these poems probes romantic and interracial intimacy, the strangeness and difficulty of his experiences as a diasporic Black African in White America, his time working as a teacher’s assistant in a third-grade classroom, and his ambivalent admiration for canonical poets who have influenced him, especially Sylvia Plath. Juxtaposing traditional forms such as sonnets and elegies with less orthodox interjections, such as prose-poem “prayers” and other meditations, the collection presents a poetic world both familiar and jarring—one in which history, the body, and poetry can collide in a single surprising turn of image: “The stars also suffer. Immense and dead, their gasses burn / distant like castanets of antebellum teeth. My open window / a synecdoche of country.”
—
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tawanda Mulalu was born in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1997. He is the author of the chapbook Nearness, and his poems have appeared in many publications, including the Paris Review, Brittle Paper, and Lolwe. He lives in New York City.
Princeton University Press
Fast shipping and professional packing
Because of our long-standing relationship with UPS FedEx DHL and other major global carriers, we are able offer a variety shipping options. Our warehouse staff are highly trained and will pack the items according to the exact and precise specifications. Your items will undergo a thorough inspection and be properly secured before they are delivered. Everyday we deliver thousands of packages to clients from all over the world. This is a sign of our determination to become the biggest online retailer in the world. The distribution centers and warehouses distribution are located in Europe and the USA.
Note: Orders with more than one item are assigned a processing time in accordance with the item.
Before shipment, all ordered items will be thoroughly inspected. The majority of orders are delivered within 48 hours. The delivery time should be between 3 and 7 working days.
Returns
The inventory is constantly changing and we do not completely manage it because many stakeholders are involved, including our warehouse and factory. This means that the actual stock could change at any time. Be aware that your order could be unable to fill when you have placed the order.
Our policy is for 30 days. If it's been more 30 days since you bought the item We're sorry to say that we can't offer you a complete exchange or refund.
You can only return a product when it's unopened and in the same condition as when you received it. It must also be returned in the original packaging.
Related products
