Alpharetta, GA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/20/2017 -- Stanley Niamatali's debut book, The Hinterlands, won the 2015 Guyana Prize for Literature for best first book of poetry. His second book of poetry, Mira and Other Poems of Guyana, is a continuation of his stunning work as he uses his homeland as the setting for Mira, a Chekhovian tale of horror and wonder.

This thirty-poem narrative documents the life of Mira as she grows from a naïve child bride to matriarch. In this poem, the soothing image of Mira's wedding band clicking over the rolling pin is countered by her husband's brutality. Mira's stoicism is evident as she embraces the encroaching darkness through simple domestic duties that mirror a reality in which the beauty of the morning, her husband's grotesque finger, and fragile maidenhair ferns are inextricable. Mira, like Guyana that is constantly misused, never loses her capacity to nurture.

When asked about his inspiration for this volume, Niamatali states, "Faced with trials and forced to enter that dark place, I confronted [my] buried past." Delving into that buried past, Niamatali exacts lyrical poems where "guppies [are] schooled in the shadow of the blooming bleeding hearts." He brings to light senseless death ("...White socks pulled / to her camphored shins..."), sublime beauty ("The resolute lake, / showing nothing of its depth, / lithographs the boundless sky"), and raw humor ("stomach, firm smoothness of freshly peeled cassava").

In this fresh new book of poetry, Niamatali explores the complexities of the human condition and the philosophy of endurance amidst a people who cannot recognize and embrace the goodness within their grasp.

Mira and Other Poems of Guyana is now available on Amazon.com and Shop.BookLogix.com.

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