Overview

A collection of poems that demystify drug addiction, alcoholism, depression, and anxiety whilst thinking through their relation to capitalism and its resistance, the family, and a writer's compulsion towrite. Boiled Owls refers to an old colloquialism: to be as boiled as an owl, to be drunk. Azad Ashim Sharma turns the phrase into a surrealist exquisite corpse in which the body and mind of a drug addict melt into the seams of personhood, spreading out into the wider world and recovering friends, family, love, and humor as strands of support. Troubling the dogma and pop cultural representations of twelve-step program discourse, Sharma emphasizes the mundane and non-linear aspects of recovery, ultimately positing addiction as an internalization of capitalism and recovery as the development of a socialist consciousness.

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9781643622354

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Reviews

"""Azad Ashim Sharma is an extraordinary force and presence in the landscape of contemporary British poetry, both as the director of South London's radical publishing collective, the87 press, and as a poet writing culturally engaged works that are put into motion by resonant performances and collaborations. Boiled Owls is a stunning rendition of 'half imaginary geography, ' a presencing of recovery as a way to consider the relational logics of nation-state, embodiment and political hope. As Sharma writes in the powerful Biographical Postscript for Readers that closes this collection: 'Addiction delineates the manifestation of capital in human form and is itself the process through which capital abducts the human mind and body; recovery, therefore, can teach not only how to move beyond addiction but also how to move beyond capitalism.' This is the cadence of survival, but also, what comes after that. Of note: a turn to prose."" --Bhanu Kapil ""Addiction has been figured as desire transfixed, and because desire has become the name for the motive force of life itself, of capitalism, for the overthrow of capitalism, for reproduction, for perversity, addiction therefore accrues the glamour of fully-invested life. That is, for those who can toy with their addiction, varying the cocktails. Azad Ashim Sharma's book tells us to the contrary that addiction is gray, unchanging, the extinction of dream, and thriving needs difference and no elaborate excuses. Although Boiled Owls is genned-up theoretically, its aphoristic clarity gives a reader to feel that every phrase is brought to bear as something to hang onto against a claim that would dissolve everything but itself. These poems and prose are chain-link bridges above a concrete yard that feigns to be oceanic. Where they can lead Azad's steps and ours is revealed as simple and hard to reach: it is to love of the others who have been waiting."" --John Wilkinson ""As notable as its intense devotion is the upset and surprise of Azad Ashim Sharma's poetry, all off and under the books in that subversive, songful erudition that resists notation. Ancient talk of numbers aside, maybe poetry is learning how not to count and how not to pay. Just this rough constancy of giving in withholding from word to word, from substance to spirit, from additive and addictive and abductive suffering to lyric wisdom."" --Fred Moten ""The poet, Azad Ashim Sharma, is deeply invested in modernity, tradition, and the counter-traditions of tearing it apart. This book likes to interrogate just about everything. But it mostly interrogates a self, trying to sing and heal in late-capital. Boiled Owls is lyrical, essayistic, plaintive, and achieved. As this book tells us, 'Here, pain is a rich tapestry of historical subjectification.' The world it conjures is phantasmagorical and looks just like this one."" --Peter Gizzi ""Passionate, brilliant, lyrical, and affective . . . one of the most complex and talented poets of his generation."" --Stephen Sheehi ""Azad Ashim Sharma writes in a tellurian and hypercultural language of shards. . . . Poetry is here in myriad as force: not to be stilled or stilted; but to want, demand, desire, proliferate and thrive at the stress point where 'every breath breaks the law.'""--Maria Sledmere"

"""Azad Ashim Sharma is an extraordinary force and presence in the landscape of contemporary British poetry, both as the director of South London's radical publishing collective, the87 press, and as a poet writing culturally engaged works that are put into motion by resonant performances and collaborations. Boiled Owls is a stunning rendition of ""half imaginary geography,"" a presencing of recovery as a way to consider the relational logics of nation-state, embodiment and political hope. As Sharma writes in the powerful Biographical Postscript for Readers that closes this collection: ""Addiction delineates the manifestation of capital in human form and is itself the process through which capital abducts the human mind and body; recovery, therefore, can teach not only how to move beyond addiction but also how to move beyond capitalism."" This is the cadence of survival, but also, what comes after that. Of note: a turn to prose."" --Bhanu Kapil ""Addiction has been figured as desire transfixed, and because desire has become the name for the motive force of life itself, of capitalism, for the overthrow of capitalism, for reproduction, for perversity, addiction therefore accrues the glamour of fully-invested life. That is, for those who can toy with their addiction, varying the cocktails. Azad Ashim Sharma's book tells us to the contrary that addiction is gray, unchanging, the extinction of dream, and thriving needs difference and no elaborate excuses. Although Boiled Owls is genned-up theoretically, its aphoristic clarity gives a reader to feel that every phrase is brought to bear as something to hang onto against a claim that would dissolve everything but itself. These poems and prose are chain-link bridges above a concrete yard that feigns to be oceanic. Where they can lead Azad's steps and ours is revealed as simple and hard to reach: it is to love of the others who have been waiting."" --John Wilkinson, Author of Lyric in its Times and Wood Circle ""As notable as its intense devotion is the upset and surprise of Azad Ashim Sharma's poetry, all off and under the books in that subversive, songful erudition that resists notation. Ancient talk of numbers aside, maybe poetry is learning how not to count and how not to pay. Just this rough constancy of giving in withholding from word to word, from substance to spirit, from additive and addictive and abductive suffering to lyric wisdom."" --Fred Moten ""The poet, Azad Ashim Sharma, is deeply invested in modernity, tradition, and the counter-traditions of tearing it apart. This book likes to interrogate just about everything. But it mostly interrogates a self, trying to sing and heal in late-capital. Boiled Owls is lyrical, essayistic, plaintive, and achieved. As this book tells us, 'Here, pain is a rich tapestry of historical subjectification.' The world it conjures is phantasmagorical and looks just like this one."" --Peter Gizzi ""Passionate, brilliant, lyrical, and affective . . . one of the most complex and talented poets of his generation."" --Stephen Sheehi ""Azad Ashim Sharma writes in a tellurian and hypercultural language of shards. . . . Poetry is here in myriad as force: not to be stilled or stilted; but to want, demand, desire, proliferate and thrive at the stress point where 'every breath breaks the law.'""--Maria Sledmere, The Luna Erratum"

""In the literary world, where writers soundwave the lyrical self, Azad Ashim Sharma stands out. As a poet and thinker influenced by Theodor Adorno’s philosophy, he explores the nuances of writing not just poetry but living within this psychological space, one that resonates with a collective and historical consciousness."" —Arthur Kayzakian, The Rumpus “Azad Ashim Sharma is an extraordinary force and presence in the landscape of contemporary British poetry, both as the director of South London's radical publishing collective, the87 press, and as a poet writing culturally engaged works that are put into motion by resonant performances and collaborations. Boiled Owls is a stunning rendition of 'half imaginary geography,' a presencing of recovery as a way to consider the relational logics of nation-state, embodiment and political hope. As Sharma writes in the powerful Biographical Postscript for Readers that closes this collection: 'Addiction delineates the manifestation of capital in human form and is itself the process through which capital abducts the human mind and body; recovery, therefore, can teach not only how to move beyond addiction but also how to move beyond capitalism.' This is the cadence of survival, but also, what comes after that. Of note: a turn to prose.”  —Bhanu Kapil   “Addiction has been figured as desire transfixed, and because desire has become the name for the motive force of life itself, of capitalism, for the overthrow of capitalism, for reproduction, for perversity, addiction therefore accrues the glamour of fully-invested life. That is, for those who can toy with their addiction, varying the cocktails. Azad Ashim Sharma’s book tells us to the contrary that addiction is gray, unchanging, the extinction of dream, and thriving needs difference and no elaborate excuses. Although Boiled Owls is genned-up theoretically, its aphoristic clarity gives a reader to feel that every phrase is brought to bear as something to hang onto against a claim that would dissolve everything but itself. These poems and prose are chain-link bridges above a concrete yard that feigns to be oceanic. Where they can lead Azad’s steps and ours is revealed as simple and hard to reach: it is to love of the others who have been waiting.”  —John Wilkinson “As notable as its intense devotion is the upset and surprise of Azad Ashim Sharma’s poetry, all off and under the books in that subversive, songful erudition that resists notation. Ancient talk of numbers aside, maybe poetry is learning how not to count and how not to pay. Just this rough constancy of giving in withholding from word to word, from substance to spirit, from additive and addictive and abductive suffering to lyric wisdom.”  —Fred Moten  “The poet, Azad Ashim Sharma, is deeply invested in modernity, tradition, and the counter-traditions of tearing it apart. This book likes to interrogate just about everything. But it mostly interrogates a self, trying to sing and heal in late-capital. Boiled Owls is lyrical, essayistic, plaintive, and achieved. As this book tells us, ‘Here, pain is a rich tapestry of historical subjectification.’ The world it conjures is phantasmagorical and looks just like this one.”  —Peter Gizzi   “Passionate, brilliant, lyrical, and affective . . . one of the most complex and talented poets of his generation.""  —Stephen Sheehi   “Azad Ashim Sharma writes in a tellurian and hypercultural language of shards. . . . Poetry is here in myriad as force: not to be stilled or stilted; but to want, demand, desire, proliferate and thrive at the stress point where ‘every breath breaks the law.’” —Maria Sledmere ""[Sharma] offers an expansive exploration of recovery and the societal structures memorializing addiction as a representation of capitalist ideologies. . . readers are offered a glimpse at the resilient nature of the human spirit and the power of literature.""  —Jaylee Cox, Disability Access Collective ""Taking approximately six years to write and publish, the poetry book tackles a variety of themes including but aren’t limited to: capitalism against socialism, drug addiction and alcoholism, social media addiction, depression, anxiety, and the slow, nonlinear process of recovery with the support of his loved ones, specifically Sharma’s brother and mother.""  —Hannah Dang, Disability Access Collective 

"“Azad Ashim Sharma is an extraordinary force and presence in the landscape of contemporary British poetry, both as the director of South London's radical publishing collective, the87 press, and as a poet writing culturally engaged works that are put into motion by resonant performances and collaborations. Boiled Owls is a stunning rendition of 'half imaginary geography,' a presencing of recovery as a way to consider the relational logics of nation-state, embodiment and political hope. As Sharma writes in the powerful Biographical Postscript for Readers that closes this collection: 'Addiction delineates the manifestation of capital in human form and is itself the process through which capital abducts the human mind and body; recovery, therefore, can teach not only how to move beyond addiction but also how to move beyond capitalism.' This is the cadence of survival, but also, what comes after that. Of note: a turn to prose.” —Bhanu Kapil   “Addiction has been figured as desire transfixed, and because desire has become the name for the motive force of life itself, of capitalism, for the overthrow of capitalism, for reproduction, for perversity, addiction therefore accrues the glamour of fully-invested life. That is, for those who can toy with their addiction, varying the cocktails. Azad Ashim Sharma’s book tells us to the contrary that addiction is gray, unchanging, the extinction of dream, and thriving needs difference and no elaborate excuses. Although Boiled Owls is genned-up theoretically, its aphoristic clarity gives a reader to feel that every phrase is brought to bear as something to hang onto against a claim that would dissolve everything but itself. These poems and prose are chain-link bridges above a concrete yard that feigns to be oceanic. Where they can lead Azad’s steps and ours is revealed as simple and hard to reach: it is to love of the others who have been waiting.” —John Wilkinson “As notable as its intense devotion is the upset and surprise of Azad Ashim Sharma’s poetry, all off and under the books in that subversive, songful erudition that resists notation. Ancient talk of numbers aside, maybe poetry is learning how not to count and how not to pay. Just this rough constancy of giving in withholding from word to word, from substance to spirit, from additive and addictive and abductive suffering to lyric wisdom.” —Fred Moten  “The poet, Azad Ashim Sharma, is deeply invested in modernity, tradition, and the counter-traditions of tearing it apart. This book likes to interrogate just about everything. But it mostly interrogates a self, trying to sing and heal in late-capital. Boiled Owls is lyrical, essayistic, plaintive, and achieved. As this book tells us, ‘Here, pain is a rich tapestry of historical subjectification.’ The world it conjures is phantasmagorical and looks just like this one.” —Peter Gizzi   “Passionate, brilliant, lyrical, and affective . . . one of the most complex and talented poets of his generation."" —Stephen Sheehi   “Azad Ashim Sharma writes in a tellurian and hypercultural language of shards. . . . Poetry is here in myriad as force: not to be stilled or stilted; but to want, demand, desire, proliferate and thrive at the stress point where ‘every breath breaks the law.’”—Maria Sledmere"

Author Information

Azad Ashim Sharma is a writer and publisher based in South London. He is the director of the87press. His work includes Against the Frame (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) andErgastulum (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). His work has featured in publications such as the Asian American Writers Workshop, Stand Magazine, Gutter Magazine, the journal Social and Health Sciences, SPAMzine, MIR Online, and Wasafiri. He is a Chase-funded PhD Candidate in English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association's Nicols Cristbal Guilln Batista Outstanding Book Award 2023. He lives in London.

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