The Flower Bearers

The Flower Bearers goes to some dark places, but there is joy, too … simultaneously a love story, a portrait of sisterhood and a visceral depiction of violence, loss and emotional devastation * Guardian *
In writing such a raw and open tribute to courage - Aisha’s, Rushdie’s, her own, as well as the writers who have gone before - she has reached an accommodation with that grief, and found a way to transmute it into poetry * Observer *
As lyrical and life-affirming as you would expect from an acclaimed poet, novelist and photographer … open and raw … powerful … a deeply felt book that battles with despair and hope, ever searching for the latter * The i *
A story of improbably resilience * Independent *
Rachel Eliza Griffith’s powerful memoir stunned me. With a poet’s precision, she renders two interwoven tragedies few others could’ve lived through, much less written about with such clear-eyed candor. Love powers both tales, and that’s the source of the book’s deep grace. She blesses us all with a survivor’s singular memoir destined to be celebrated for aeons * Mary Karr *
A beautiful and immensely powerful book about love, grief and finding a way to be in a forever altered world – Julia Samuel
This profoundly felt account moves between the raw, the lyrical, and the elegiac as it seeks the light of healing * Kirkus, starred review *
Unsparing and full-throated. In The Flower Bearers, grief is to love as pain is to pleasure. Through the lens of a poet and documentarian, Griffiths deftly explores what it is to bear witness and to remain present. The Flower Bearers offers a transformative testament to the fragility of life and the compulsion to look when others look away. Griffiths’ call to document and make sense of the horror, the fear, and the gut-wrenching pain of loss is, at its core, an exploration of capacity, resilience, and the deeply human need to remain open to love in all its forms. – A. M. Holmes
What a gift The Flower Bearers is. Tenderly, carefully, Rachel Eliza Griffiths excavates deep into matters of her heart, and her sentences make space for readers to do the same. Griffiths writes with beauty and consideration, not just about what happens when grief wrecks your foundations, but the light that emerges through those cracks. This is a precise and intentional masterwork, that reminded me of the power of love that endures. – Caleb Azumah Nelson
Profoundly moving … an eloquent tribute to Griffiths’ love for Rushdie and for her ‘chosen sister’ Moon - and a heart-stoppingly vivid account of what it’s like to experience intense pleasure and deep pain in such quick succession – Johanna Thomas-Corr * Sunday Times *
Elegant and juicy … storytelling unafraid of poetry … The Flower Bearers does the bold work of meticulously parsing women’s lives and relationships … Those intoxicating, can’t-stop-confiding-in-each-other moments are soulfully rendered throughout … an un-selfconcious conveyance of that time in life when nothing is impossible and dreams are jet fuel … what glows here is a profound sureness of self that one usually comes by the hard way * New York Times *
A powerful and poetic account of her pain. It makes for both a companion piece [to Rushdie’s Knife] - and a counterpoint * Telegraph *
Lyrical and life-affirming … powerful … [Griffiths] writes beautifully about the uniquely difficult aspects of being a black poet’ … a deeply felt, expressive book that battles with despair and hope, ever searching for the latter * Scotsman *
At the heart of the book is a tender, fiercely loving portrait of a friendship … A meditation on grief, resilience and transformation. With lyrical precision and emotional clarity, Griffiths honours the people who shaped her life while reckoning with the cost of loving deeply. * Voice Magazine *
Raw and moving … captures how creativity and healing can be life-affirming and restorative, especially in the depths of dark emotions. This self-portrait is sure to resonate with many readers thanks to its disarming vulnerability and lyrical prose * Observer Magazine *

Rachel Eliza Griffiths is an artist, poet, and novelist. Her recent hybrid collection of poetry and photography, Seeing the Body, was selected as the winner of the 2021 Hurston/Wright Foundation Award in Poetry, the winner of the 2020 Paterson Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2021 NAACP Image Award. Griffiths’ work has appeared widely, including The New Yorker, the Paris Review, Best American Poetry (2020, 2021), Tin House, and many others. Her debut novel, Promise, was published in 2023. She lives in New York City.

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