Selected by Amaud Jamaul Johnson for the 2023 Jake Adam York Prize, Yalie Saweda Kamara’s Besaydoo (milkweed editions, 2024) is an elegantly wrought love song to home—as place, as people, as body, and as language.
Cover design by: Mary Austin Speaker
Selected Awards & recognitions
Winner of the 2023 Jake Adam York Prize, selected by Amaud Jamaul Johnson
Winner of the 2025 Ohio Book Award for Poetry, Ohioana Library Association
Finalist for the 2025 Firecracker Literary Award, The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses
Spotlighted in "The Luminous Life: Our Twentieth Annual Look at Debut Poets” Poets & Writers , Winter, 2025
Noted in “Newly Published” column, The New York Times Review of Books (print), 2024
Starred audiobook review from Library Journal, 2024
Honored in Brittle Paper’s feature “100 Notable African Books of 2024”
Honored in Open Country Magazine’s feature “60 Notable Books of 2024”
Honored in Debutiful’s feature “Best Debut Poetry of 2024”
Honored in Ms. Magazine’s feature “Reads for the Rest of Us: The Best Poetry of ’23-’24”
Noted in Bookshop’s “Best New Poetry: Winter, 2024”
Noted in Libro.fm’s “Most Anticipated Titles,” 2024
