Pulling Faces: Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize for Poetry 2026

Pulling Faces yanks you by the collar and talks like your favourite, wayward cousin. Speaking of and to the Somali community, Zakariye eschews the romanticised cliches of the diasporic experience. Instead, he embraces the ugly, the strange, the mundane and the magical in all its simultaneity.
Pulling Faces yanks you by the collar and talks like your favourite, wayward cousin. Fresh and vivid, these poems are equal turns cheeky and world weary, defiant and mournful. Speaking of and to the Somali community, Zakariye eschews the romanticised cliches of the diasporic experience. Instead, he embraces the ugly, the strange, the mundane and the magical in all its simultaneity. It is never quite clear what is truth and what is myth or where the line between love and fear is drawn, and this very ambiguity is this pamphlet's biggest strength. This is a gut-lead work that speaks just as loud in its omissions as its well chosen words.

'Generosity, craft and bite. These words share a voice fully connected to what it notices and clearly burning with more to say. Wicked.' Steven 'Polarbear' Camden

'This pamphlet is a stunning meditation on growing up, the continual and often fractious journey to becoming, on learning to grieve and to live. Zakariye writes family, brotherhood, friendship, community and coming of age with such style, energy, technique and precision. Cinematic, joyful, tender. It will make you smile. It will break your heart.' Cecilia Knapp

'Zakariye has an amazing ability to capture the world around him in its fullness. He manages to find the hope in darkness, the cold perspective that accompanies joy and the reality hiding in every dream. He does this with skill and clarity, allowing you to really feel the emotion that sits behind the work in a beautiful way.' Casey Bailey

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