Birlinn General Holy Boys

Shortlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize. Holy Boys seeks to address the lingering echoes of adolescence and the pains of living a life in the shadows of unspeakable desires and all-consuming longing.These poems are a means of finding language in youth, gathering experience in pubescence, and serving as testament to survival in a world that demands silences throughout queer life. These poems are an archive which maps physical desire and emotional needs while pushing past dogma and self-hating.They are a means of naming the many lovers and loved ones who have helped move the speaker from boyhood into manhood.This is a collection that is informed by faith, sexuality, loss and love, a celebration of the growing pains that eventually allow us to unfurl into whole beings.