Manahil Bandukwala's second collection of poems is a meditation on love during times of social and political upheaval. As a sunflower's growth reaches toward the sun, so, she suggests, is a lover's growth compelled by the gravitational pull and soul-light of their beloved. Many of these poems are in conversation with other poets and artists, creating a lineage of call and response. Against a backdrop of terrestrial crisis, come, spend your precious minutes in love's Heliotropia, where we are magnetized by the unfathomable dark matter of another person, and know ourselves as celestial bodies flowering in spacetime, together. (From Brick Books)

Manahil Bandukwala is a writer, editor and visual artist. She is the author of Monument which was shortlisted for the 2023 Gerald Lampert Award and co-author of Women Wide Awake with her sister. Bandukwala was selected as a Writer's Trust of Canada Rising Star in 2023. She is the co-creator of Reth aur Reghistan, a multidisciplinary project exploring folklore from Pakistan through poetry, sculpture and community arts.

Bandukwala was longlisted for the 2024 CBC Poetry Prize. She was previously longlisted for the 2019 CBC Poetry Prize for her poem To ride an art horse.