In 2015, Welsh poet RJ Arkhipov gained international acclaim when he penned a series of poems using his own blood as ink in protest of the blood donor ban on men who have sex with men. Five years on, in the midst of a pandemic, governments across the United Kingdom announced the discriminatory policy would finally be lifted. To commemorate the occasion, Zuleika is republishing Arkhipov's 'blood poems' in a new paperback edition with illustrations by French artist Fabien Ghernati. Imagined as a living, breathing, pulsing body of work through which the poetry of blood courses, Visceral is an exploration of our life essence. With his constrained and concrete poems, Arkhipov invites the reader to pause and ponder the many meanings of blood through the lenses of abjection, ancestry, faith, intimacy, mortality, and stigma. The diversity of the book's thematic organs stands as testament to the omnipresent beat of blood in our languages and cultures. Arkhipov's evocation of the LGBT experience, in particular, highlights the intersection of blood with sex, love, and shame in the LGBT community.

About the Author
Born in Wales. Reborn in Paris. RJ Arkhipov moved to the French capital at the age of eighteen to study French literature, cinema and art history at the University of London Institute in Paris. Today living in Edinburgh, Scotland, Arkhipov's work explores the passions, politics and vulnerabilities of the body and is greatly influenced by the constrained writing techniques and concrete poetry of Oulipo and other avant-garde movements of twentieth-century Paris.


Book Information
ISBN 9781838032487
Author RJ Arkhipov
Format Paperback
Page Count 108
Imprint Zuleika
Publisher Zuleika