Where The Memory Was

In her first full collection, Hibaq Osman presents her poems in flashes of memory. Part of the #TwentyIn2020 collection for Black British writing, Where The Memory Was represents the voice and experience of young Black Britain today through one of their own literary stars.

Split into three parts, Where The Memory Was, invites readers into a word full of blunt feeling and delicate poetics. Ranging in theme from inter-generational pain to reckless young love and battles with illness, these poems turn memory into a living aspect of our lives. These beautiful poems all cover the truths of a multi-layered identity and existing within structures, systems and histories that oppress. They range in theme from intergenerational trauma, love or lack of it and how our unique histories sometimes provide safety from the harshness of current reality.