Kin : An Anthology of Poetry, Story and Art by Women from Romani, Traveller and Nomadic Communities

£15.00

“This is a book shaped by the bonds of kinship—the joy of authentic connection and the grief of sustained loss. By giving voice to memory and tradition, and by mourning and celebrating those who have gone before, these works explore ideas of belonging across time, even when they are speaking from places of pain and discrimination. In their rich and varied forms, they reveal what it is like to be ‘misplaced bodies in a misplaced city’ and yet to refuse to be silenced. It is impossible not to be carried to new worlds by this book, and to be transformed by the energies of its language.” 

  • Lucy Collins, Associate Professor, University College Dublin

“This is a book shaped by the bonds of kinship—the joy of authentic connection and the grief of sustained loss. By giving voice to memory and tradition, and by mourning and celebrating those who have gone before, these works explore ideas of belonging across time, even when they are speaking from places of pain and discrimination. In their rich and varied forms, they reveal what it is like to be ‘misplaced bodies in a misplaced city’ and yet to refuse to be silenced. It is impossible not to be carried to new worlds by this book, and to be transformed by the energies of its language.” 

  • Lucy Collins, Associate Professor, University College Dublin

About the Editors

Editor: Raine Geoghegan, M.A. is a Welsh-born poet, prose writer and playwright of Romany, Welsh and Irish ethnicity. She is a Forward Prize, twice Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net nominee. Her work has been published online and in print with Poetry Ireland Review; Travellers’ Times; Ofi Press; Under the Radar; The Clearing; SkyLight47; Fly on the Wall and many more. Her essay, ‘It’s Hopping Time’ was featured in Gifts of Gravity and Light (Hodder & Stoughton, 2021). Two pamphlets, Apple Water: Povel Panni and they lit fires: lenti hatch o yog are by Hedgehog Poetry Press. Apple Water was listed in the Poetry Book Society Spring 2019 Selection. She is the Romani Script Consultant for the musical ‘For Tonight.’ Her third pamphlet The Stone Sleep was published in January 2022 with Hedgehog Poetry Press. The Talking Stick: O Pookering Kosh was published in June 2022 by Salmon Poetry. She has read at the following festivals: Ledbury; Arundel; Festival of Chichester; South Downs; Winchester & other venues in both the UK and Ireland including Misleor, Nomadic Festival in Galway as well as the Poetry Lounge in Sydney, Australia. 

Co-editor: Fióna Bolger is a poet, mentor and creative facilitator. Her most recent collection, Love in the Original Language was published by Salmon Poetry in 2022. Her facilitation and creative practice are polyvocal and plurilingual. She recently co-edited Dubylon (Intercultural Language Services/DCC). She is interested in the crossing of borders both linguistic and political and the spaces between. Her practice is rooted in a trauma-informed, anti-racist pedagogy. www.fionabolgerpoetry.com

Praise for Kin

“KIN is a trail-blazing, diverse anthology of poetry and prose writings and artworks by roughly fifty women writers and artists from Romani, Traveller and Nomadic Communities with a most helpful editorial note by Raine Geoghegan and an enlightening introduction by Dr Rosaleen McDonagh. The editors and Salmon Poetry have done an invaluable job gathering the material for this book from contributors who are dispersed to places as far apart as Europe, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, the US and Europe—testimony to the transnational character of this ‘non-territorial cultural nation’ (Celia Grigore). Many of them are prize-winning poets, novelists and short story writers, academics, teachers, community workers and activists, taking to the page with confidence and stated pride in their Romani or Traveller origin, producing works of dazzling literary and artistic standard, thereby challenging stereotypical narratives that have been imposed on them.”

- Eva Bourke, Poet and member of Aos Dána 

“This is a book that bears itness to the intensity of experience shared by Romani communities worldwide—a glorious anthology which is both deep and mysterious, brimming with joy and sorrow as it celebrates a world and a way of life that has become marginalised—recapturing its passion and uniqueness. A book to treasure and to hold tight, mighty and kushti.”

- Menna Elfyn, Welsh Poet, Bardd, Professor Emerita, UWTSD, President Wales PEN Cymru

“Romany and Traveller voices can often be overlooked. KIN is a long overdue collection of insightful and personal poetry that goes some way to collating the female experience of nomadic ethnicities both historically and in the present day.”

- John-Henry Phillips, Author, filmmaker, and television presenter

Publisher: Salmon Poetry

Date Published: 18 July 2025

Paperback, 192 pages

ISBN: 9781915022707

You Might Also Like