LAND | LINES

82pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2024

Poems

“Shari Daya’s poems bring out what she calls ‘the thrill of hot, soft, quiet lives’: beach holidays and household incense, the pains and pleasures of childhood and parenthood and the professional joys of geography, Indian Ocean migration, the anatomy of the cornea, and the special beauty of the Cederberg. Her language is serious, quiet, and sometimes spectacular.” Imraan Coovadia, author of High Low In-between

“Shari Daya’s Land \ Lines is an exquisitely-crafted kaleidoscope of poetry and memoir. Daya’s text – a series of meditations on remembrance, parenting, identity, gardening, the wild freedoms of nature, the joys and dangers of childhood – glows. She brings a sense of wonder to the quotidian that invites the reader to glimpse at her life and, perhaps, see their own lives anew. I loved every gorgeous sentence and saw, as I read it, that rare, precious thing in literature: a Cape Town, both past and present, that I recognised." Nadia Davids, author of the plays At Her Feet and Cissie

Shari Daya is a geographer and poet from Cape Town. Land | Lines is her debut poetry collection.