Backwaters Prize in Poetry Hum: Poems, (Paperback)

<p><b>Winner of the Backwaters Prize in Poetry</b></p><p>The word "hum" in Urdu can mean both "we" and "I." In English, it's a gesture of sound--a vibration. Sanam Sheriff's <i>HUM</i> is a trans call to the beauty of attempt rather than the clarity of arrival. This book seeks as the pilgrim seeks, wandering from a plural sense of self with a lyric attunement to the wound's power.</p><p>Following a queer, trans, Muslim speaker who grew up in southern India and migrated to the United States, Sheriff's debut collection invites us to listen: to how yearning for a country blurs with yearning for a beloved; to how exile, for queer and trans people, is where the body itself becomes a place of dignity and prayer.</p><p>Enriched by Urdu lyric traditions of love, and love mourned, <i>HUM</i> raises the queer erotic to the heavens, even as the grief of separation lingers as paradise lost. Here, Sheriff weaves together the two most potent threads of human life: pain and love, strummed until they sing. </p>

• Backwaters Prize in Poetry Hum: Poems, (Paperback)
• Author: Sanam Sheriff
• ISBN: 9781496248022
• Format: Paperback
• Publication Date: 2026-10-01
• Page Count: 84