We're often told that we are given only what we can bear. For some of us our first lessons are in how much pain we''re made to think we deserve — and the resulting scars are always meant to be kept secret. Assiyah Jamilla Touré''s debut collection is a record of those scars — not those inflicted on us by the thousands of little wars we live in everyday, but those that come afterwards, those we inflict upon ourselves to mark the path.

Each and every poem in Autowar was written on a cell phone, transcribing an urgent revisiting of old sites of pain, and also a revisiting of one young person''s power and ability — to hurt themself, or others. These poems are powerful evocations of how even our scars have worlds and lives. (From Brick Books)

Assiyah Jamilla Touré is a multidisciplinary artist of West African descent. She was born and raised in Vancouver, lived for many years in Montreal and is now based in Toronto. Autowar is her first full-length collection.