Ikhda, by Ikhda

A mind-blowing collection of poems about love, life, and a long-overdue introduction to the unique worldview of Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi. Ikhda captures the intensity and wildness of love, sex, motherhood and family ties through her heady and sensual poems and character sketches. She flexes and chivvies the English language into hitherto undreamt-of places, dipping occasionally into French and Italian, and presents it all back to the reader in compelling, undeniably truthful nuggets, with exquisite tenderness and humanity. Ikhda Ayuning Maharsi has worked in television, advertising and as a scriptwriter on a sitcom in Indonesia. She performed her poetry for the first time in 2011, at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. She now lives in Naples, where she is enjoying her new role as mother to her little boy Corentin.