Nina Powles

In the Hollow of the Wave, the second collection by Nina Mingya Powles, examines orientalism, art and artmaking in a time of ecological crisis. Influenced by the lives of women artists, and combining textile art, collage and poetry, these precise, remarkable poems reflect on the material of living, the thread of stories and memories held within fabrics and garments.Through museum and gallery spaces, Powles examines creation and craft as a radical act of love, reclamation and resistance to the shadow of colonial legacies and attitudes. Engaging with the work of artists such as Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Yayoi Kusama, Etel Adnan and the fashion designer Guo Pei, these poems rework the notion of ekphrasis into something elemental and tactile, to find new ways of rendering shifting places, languages and selves; a thriving tapestry of nature and life in full and vivid colour.

Home is many people and places and languages, some separated by oceans. Nina Mingya Powles first learned to swim in Borneo - where her mother was born and her grandfather studied freshwater fish. There, the local swimming pool became her first body of water. Through her life there have been others that have meant different things, but have still been, in their own way, home: from the wild coastline of New Zealand to a pond in northwest London. This lyrical collection of interconnected essays explores the bodies of water that separate and connect us, as well as everything from migration, food, family, earthquakes and the ancient lunisolar calendar to butterflies. In powerful prose, Small Bodies of Water weaves together personal memories, dreams and nature writing. It reflects on a girlhood spent growing up between two cultures, and explores what it means to belong.

Home is many people and places and languages, some separated by oceans. Nina Mingya Powles first learned to swim in Borneo - where her mother was born and her grandfather studied freshwater fish. There, the local swimming pool became her first body of water. Through her life there have been others that have meant different things, but have still been, in their own way, home: from the wild coastline of New Zealand to a pond in northwest London. This lyrical collection of interconnected essays explores the bodies of water that separate and connect us, as well as everything from migration, food, family, earthquakes and the ancient lunisolar calendar to butterflies. In powerful prose, Small Bodies of Water weaves together personal memories, dreams and nature writing. It reflects on a girlhood spent growing up between two cultures, and explores what it means to belong.