AGIMAT
Dear DLSU students,
On November 29, 2025, I’ll be visiting your university to give a craft talk on poetry writing, including reflections on how I created AGIMAT (Penguin/Chatto & Windus)—a collection where mythology meets frontline nursing, and where words become protective charms against present and inherited wounds.
I’m looking forward to meeting you! Copies of AGIMAT are available below for those who’d like to explore the work more deeply.
With warmth,
Romalyn
Poetry Book Society Recommendation
The Observer Poetry Book of the Month
Society of Authors' Arthur Welton Award
Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize
‘I felt grateful for the tender attention the poet affords to a hope that many of us hold dear: that as patients – that as people – we may amount to more than just flesh and bone.’ – Jade Cuttle, The Observer
‘What unites the poems is her simple, beautiful language, and an awareness of the difficulty of healing.’ – Rishi Dastidar, ‘The Best Recent Poetry’, The Guardian
'An alchemical wonder of a poet' – Fiona Benson, author of Vertigo & Ghost
'Filled with heart and beauty...’ – Cecile Pin, author of Wandering Souls
'Vivid, lyrical, and always surprising . . . Both a balm and a call to action' – Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2021 Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2021 The Irish Times Best Poetry Books of the Year List 2020 The Poetry School Poetry Books of the Year List 2020 Observer Poetry Book of the Month 2020 National Poetry Day Great New Poetry Books List 2020 Winner of the Manchester Poetry Prize 2018 A 'tour-de-force.' Jhalak Prize shortlist A poetry of rapturous images and riveting conscience. Tracy K. Smith Poignant, beautiful, and meditative writing on movement — living in a foreign country, being away from one’s family, speaking a language not quite your own... This is possibly the most beautiful thing I have read this year. Maria Lewandowska, The Poetry School Poetry Books of the Year By turns playful and tender, offering a formally-various exploration of migration, community, and nursing... there is honesty, musicality, a powerful heart. Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times Best Poetry Books of 2020 Captivating, moving, witty, and agile... [Ante] is an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude, not neglecting to see her situation within a wider cultural and historical context... Each poem is a go-between: it is through poetry that worlds meet and converse... Ante proves an accomplished bridge builder.' Kate Kellaway, Observer Poetry Book of the Month Ante’s poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core whose intensity she sustains elegantly throughout the collection. Stephanie Sy-Quia, Times Literary Supplement Extremely good poetry, very powerful, very affecting, very well crafted.'Boyd Tonkin, The Intelligence podcast