Book — Sanah Ahsan

I cannot be good until you say it

Poetry Collection

“Sanah Ahsan’s poetry makes the whole world seem still and silent whilst simultaneously inspiring you to change it. Their words remind us of poetry, prose and critical thinking authors of the past like Audre Lorde and Langston Hughes.”

— Aesop’s Queer Library

Testimonials

Intricately weaving Quranic verse, psychology, and the hip-hop soundtrack of their childhood, Sanah's poems reach for divinity in the queer body; an archive that refuses erasure.

These poems traverse unruly emotional and physical landscapes, Whiteness, islamophobia, homophobia, masculinity, intergenerational suffering, suicidality and the politics of therapeutic processes. In these pages, belief and unbelief, goodness and badness, the material and spiritual are intertwined, reclaiming queer love and desire as holy.

The book was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection at the Forward Prizes for Poetry 2024, The Polari First Book Prize 2025, and selected as one of The Guardian’s Best Poetry Books.