Up-and-coming writer and poet Louisa Msiska has published an anthology, which chronicles her life experiences.
Despite her young age of 23, Msiska has experienced life challenges and this motivated her to write a poetry book titled; Bare Soul.
The collection contains themes of love, pleasure, life and darkness, according to the author.
“Like the name suggests, Bare Soul is about me baring my soul to my readers. Each poem was written based on issues that have happened in my life. And I wanted to connect with them intimately and make everyone who reads know that I understand and give them a gateway of expressing themselves through my words,” she said in an interview.
This is Msiska’s first commercial poetry collection.
“The idea for the collection came when I was going through a rough patch with my health and for the first time, I wanted a collection that encompasses all the emotions that I have had for a while,” she said.
The collection is divided into five parts namely Love, Intimacy, Life, Darkness and Break.
“I felt, everyone experiences love and intimacy in this life. Life was just to talk about a lot of life experiences we go through. Darkness was written at my lowest point in life and comprises poems about dealing with depression and anxiety.
“Break was about taking a break from everything, life and love literally,” she explained.
Since its release on July 23, it has attracted good reactions, she said.
“The response has been great, having sold 90 copies already. And because it has different sections with different emotions, it is amazing to see readers get captured in a section and gravitate towards them. It has 28 poems in total.
“I don’t think I’ll print this collection. However, I plan to merge all the collections I have released to be in one book. And God willing, that will be available in print. It took a month to complete the compilation, but, there are poems that were written a while back,” said Msiska.
One of the readers of Bare Soul Christine Mandalasi said she found the book to be a great read.
“Going through her
poems somewhat felt like she was speaking through my emotions and taking the words right out of my soul and not my mouth. Her writing is beautiful.
“As I was going through each poem, it sort of felt like she was letting me open up,” she said. Bare Soul is available on the writer’s website; https://thelouisamsiska.com and it can be bought through Airtel Money, TNM Mpamba and Mo626.
