Hiding to Nothing
Published on 1. April 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
74 pages
978-1-80085-482-6 (ISBN)
Description
*Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2023
**
Anita Pati's debut collection, *Hiding to Nothing, explores the destabilising effects of violence, particularly empire's aftermath, on a psyche. Threaded with internal dialogue, this multi-layered work witnesses how unbelonging can unsettle perceptions of the brown female body within an unwelcoming, even hostile, environment.
From 'exotic' dodos punished for not being doves to Greenface, on whom blonde girls birth natterjack toads, marginal presences tell their stories. Hiding to Nothing suggests that complex and damaging legacies in all their forms can create shockwaves that reverberate over a lifetime, stopping lives from reaching their full potential. And the trauma experienced through centuries of colonial history continues to be embodied and enacted.
These perceptions of body-image and self-worth are picked up in the central documentary sequence, Bloodfruit, which is based on interviews with women. Bloodfruit gives voice to the less heard narratives of infertility and difficult trajectories towards becoming, or not becoming, a 'mother'. Here, the often-fraught notions of womanhood and motherhood are also shown to feed into ideas on who is able to mother.
Pati uses an original, lyrical approach towards the ambiguities and ambivalences that cloud our decisions. Ultimately, ambient aggressions towards our own and other bodies can only be made good by breaking the cycle. Pati unravels compacted pain but those looking for easy answers or redemption will find no compromise here.
**
Anita Pati's debut collection, *Hiding to Nothing, explores the destabilising effects of violence, particularly empire's aftermath, on a psyche. Threaded with internal dialogue, this multi-layered work witnesses how unbelonging can unsettle perceptions of the brown female body within an unwelcoming, even hostile, environment.
From 'exotic' dodos punished for not being doves to Greenface, on whom blonde girls birth natterjack toads, marginal presences tell their stories. Hiding to Nothing suggests that complex and damaging legacies in all their forms can create shockwaves that reverberate over a lifetime, stopping lives from reaching their full potential. And the trauma experienced through centuries of colonial history continues to be embodied and enacted.
These perceptions of body-image and self-worth are picked up in the central documentary sequence, Bloodfruit, which is based on interviews with women. Bloodfruit gives voice to the less heard narratives of infertility and difficult trajectories towards becoming, or not becoming, a 'mother'. Here, the often-fraught notions of womanhood and motherhood are also shown to feed into ideas on who is able to mother.
Pati uses an original, lyrical approach towards the ambiguities and ambivalences that cloud our decisions. Ultimately, ambient aggressions towards our own and other bodies can only be made good by breaking the cycle. Pati unravels compacted pain but those looking for easy answers or redemption will find no compromise here.
Reviews / Votes
'Hiding to Nothing is a hard-hitting, lyrical exploration of attitudes towards women, particularly black women, and how those attitudes shape lives. [...] Anita Pati writes with uncompromising sensitivity and an forensic eye.'Emma Lee, London Grip 'Pati's excoriating debut collection is one of painful yet necessary release: "my chest frays open, / bivalved wires spitting, bloodish". These vivid poems explore suppression and silencing - the violence of empire, the toxicity of whiteness, the pressures placed upon the female body. [...] These confronting, polyvocal dialogues ring with the energy of long-held suffering, finally released into a shared language. [...] This visceral, affecting and politically astute collection announces a courageous new voice in British poetry.'Rebecca Tamas, The Guardian 'Anita Pati's Hiding to Nothing [from] Pavilion Poetry is unforgettable, giving voice to silences of many kinds, esp[ecially] those persisting around infertility. Her poems are compelling, fierce, playful & her approach always unexpected.' - Fiona Larkin 'Hiding to Nothing is an inventive, highly original collection, fizzing with barely concealed anger at the violence of Empire, of racism, of patriarchy & of how brown women's bodies are treated. This excerpt, from the 'Bloodfruit' sequence, draws on interviews with many women:
'I'm unprecious cargo. Not a real woman. My body's betrayed me.
Q. Are we only worthy when we've procreated?'
Hiding to Nothing is bold & rather brilliant.'
Katrina Naomi, Katrina's Poetry News 'Anita Pati's debut collection utilises form and language to
devastating effect. The central section is an elegy for all the
"neverborns" and the women who were mothers all too briefly.
In other poems, uncompromising in scope and content,
women's bodies take centre stage: are shown as being overly
scrutinised, found lacking, raped or put under the knife.
Channelling a myriad of voices, Pati speaks commandingly
for those who, though suffering, continue to see "only stars".'
Shash Trevett, Poetry Book Society Bulletin 'This lyrical first collection explores ideas around self-worth and unbelonging in dazzling brave and powerful poems using a multitude of innovative and exciting forms.'
Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon 'Startling, visceral lines ... with an energy that often eludes British poetry.'
April Yee, The Poetry Review 'The humour and wit in Anita Pati's Hiding to Nothing could cauterise any wound' Suna Afshan, Wasafiri 'We can't doubt Pati's strong empathy, including her sense of the sheer longevity of painful experience... Pati is in many ways a relentless writer... detailed context, close analysis and skilful poetic technique enable us to understand the precise nature of a specific form of cruelty.' Dilys Wood, ARTEMISpoetry 'Hiding to Nothing bangs the door open and enters with a shout. The panic throughout this magnificent debut collection is palpable... This is a brilliant and inventive collection - one I will definitely keep coming back to. The playfulness with form and different degrees of faintness of text all work really well and enhance the poems meaning.' Julia Webb, Under the Radar
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 188 mm
Width: 119 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
100 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80085-482-6 (9781800854826)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Anita Pati was born and raised in an English northern coastal town and currently lives in London. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Dodo Provocateur, won The Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition (2019) and was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets. She has been a Jerwood/Arvon mentee, an Aldeburgh Eight participant, a winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and a joint winner of the inaugural Women Poets' Prize (2018/20). Anita has worked variously in journalism and libraries.