We are delighted to announce that AGIMAT, the second poetry collection by prize-winning poet Romalyn Ante, will be published by Chatto and Windus in hardback and eBook in the UK on 5th September 2024. World English Language rights were acquired from Isobel Dixon by Chatto & Windus poetry editor, Sarah Howe.
Speaking on the announcement of Chatto’s first poetry list under her stewardship, Sarah Howe said: ‘I could not be more proud of this daring, resonant, beautiful set of books, the first under my editorship at Chatto. It has been a joy working with our poets, existing and new, to bring these important works to the world. I look forward to the day readers will hold these stunning objects in their hands, and be changed by them.’
Romalyn Ante’s debut collection, ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS (also published by Chatto & Windus) was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Romalyn has previously won the Poetry London Prize and the Manchester Poetry Prize and AGIMAT has already been chosen as a Poetry Book Society Autumn Recommendation and garnered praise from fellow poets and early readers (see more below).
this charms the buried light of stars –
this deflects bullets – this unblooms a war –
In some Filipino clans, parents pass down to each child an AGIMAT, an amulet, in the hope its magic will protect and empower them. In a world of daily pain and loss, Romalyn Ante’s second collection asks: how do we keep safe what we hold most dear?
At the dawn of the pandemic, the poet – a practising nurse in the NHS – is thrown onto the frontlines of the war against COVID-19. Past conflicts swim into the now. When she falls in love with a man of Japanese heritage, it forces a reckoning with her family’s suffering under Japan’s brutal wartime occupation of the Philippines. Elsewhere, we meet the irrepressible goddess Mebuyan, who, in Philippine myth, nurses the spirits of children in the underworld. Here, she watches over young people in crisis – a girl who can’t stop cutting herself, a teenager who has leapt from a railway viaduct.
These are poems of strength and solace; they question what it means to fight, and what it takes to heal.
Romalyn is currently developing her first novel, THE LEFT-BEHIND CHILD, a lyrical and vivid depiction of childhood and rupture inspired by her and her mother’s stories of leaving the Philippines to work and care for others in the United Kingdom.
Photo credit: S Chadawong
About Romalyn Ante
Romalyn Ante FRSL is a British-Filipino poet, essayist, and editor. She grew up in the Philippines and migrated to her second home, Wolverhampton, in 2005.
She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language, and the founder of Tsaá with Roma, an online interview series with poets and other creatives. She was awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship and she currently sits as an editorial board member for Poetry London magazine.
She is the first East-Asian to win the Poetry London Prize (2018) and the Manchester Poetry Prize (2017). She also won the Creative Future Literary Award 2017.
Apart from being a writer, she also works as a specialist nurse practitioner. Her debut poetry collection, ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS, is published by Chatto & Windus and was an Irish Times Best Poetry Book of 2020, an Observer Poetry Book of the Month and a Poetry School Poetry Book of the Year 2020. It was also a National Poetry Day UK Recommended Read and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
Praise for AGIMAT
‘Ante is an alchemical wonder of a poet: unparalleled in her image-making, raw to both historical and contemporary damage and rich in cultures. Utterly original, AGIMAT is itself a talisman – a fiery binding of pain and a message of love to the wounded and lost. Keep these poems with you as I will – always.’ – Fiona Benson
‘If translation is always physical, often joyous work – the act of carrying meaning across the chasms separating languages – then AGIMAT is about the daily embodied acts involved in this labour. To live in translation is to be estranged. Yet the joy of translation comes from this very estrangement. Romalyn Ante makes us feel this, as estrangement transforms into its own vibrant space of joy. Ante’s irrepressible inquiries into translation create a colourful linguistic sanctuary.’ – Jason Allen-Paisant
‘Romalyn Ante’s mesmeric new collection is deeply rooted in the dualities of life, cultural identity, and the profound interplay of personal and communal experience. Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising, it is a testament to those who navigate the complex legacies of history toward healing and resilience. It is both a balm and a call to action, reminding us of the transformative power of bearing witness.’ – Nathan Filer
‘Romalyn Ante’s first collection introduced us to a voice both vibrant and thoughtful. This collection grows out from this – now coming with a feeling of added power and forcefulness. This is a special book – both urgent and beautiful.’ – Niall Campbell
‘With precision, deftness, and at times playfulness, AGIMAT weaves in mythical and modern imageries, the universal with the intimate. The result is a powerful and hopeful collection, filled with heart and beauty, that illuminates us to the many forms that caring and healing can take.’ – Cecile Pin
Praise for Romalyn Ante
‘Captivating, playful, moving, witty and agile... an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude’ – The Guardian
‘Romalyn Ante is a poet to fall in love with’ – Liz Berry
‘Ante’s poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core’ – Times Literary Supplement
Vist Romalyn’s website.
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