AGIMAT
'An alchemical wonder of a poet' Fiona Benson, author of Vertigo & Ghost
'Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising . . . Both a balm and a call to action' Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall
A sparkling new collection from Romalyn Ante, nurse and prizewinning poet, moving between the Philippines and Wolverhampton, myth and the grind of the present-day NHS.
'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. At the dawn of the pandemic, the poet – a practising nurse in the NHS – is thrown onto…
$27.99
March 25, 2025Romalyn Ante FRSL is a Filipino-British poet, essayist, and editor. She was born and bred in Lipa, Philippines. She was 16 years old when her mother – a nurse in the NHS – brought the family to the UK. Her debut collection, Antiemetic for Homesickness (Chatto, 2020), was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is the co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language. She was awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship in 2021-2022, sits on the editorial board for Poetry London magazine, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in the West Midlands where she works…
AGIMAT
Romalyn Ante