Her extraordinary belief in the power of language – of speaking – to articulate selfhood, confront injustice and bring about change in the world remains as transformative today as it was then, and no less urgent.

A pioneering force for change in both racial prejudice and issues of gender and sexuality, Audre Lord was a maverick literary talent who ranged over poetry, prose and polemic with equal assuredness. Your Silence Will Not Protect You brings together some of her very finest pieces across all genres and includes a superb new preface from Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of Why I Am No Longer Talking To White People About Race. 

This brand new volume is the first time Audre Lorde’s essays, speeches and poetry have been brought together in one volume by an English publisher. The collection includes a new preface by Reni Eddo-Lodge and an introduction by Sara Ahmed.  

Audre Lorde (1934-92) described herself as ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’. Born in New York, she had her first poem published while still at school and her last the year she died of cancer.

This edition brings Lorde’s essential poetry, speeches and essays,