The inaugural Young Poet Laureate for London in 2013, Warsan Shire is a British-Somali poet born in Nairobi, Kenya, and raised in London. She received the inaugural Brunel University African Poetry Prize in 2013 and was named Amnesty International's first artist-in-residence on the 2015 European migration crisis. Her debut pamphlet, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye publishing, 2011), preceded her contributions to Beyoncé's 2016 visual album Lemonade and the 2020 film Black Is King. Her first full-length collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (Random House, 2022), was shortlisted for the 2022 Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
