‘Lotfi is a quiet and faithful witness. There is no self-indulgent introspection. She insists on seeing what she sees.’
– Carol Rumens, The Guardian, Poem of the Week
‘Lotfi’s poetry is deceptively simple: clear eyed in its choice of imagery, but always beautifully constructed […] This is an impressive debut, spanning years, countries and homelands, all expertly woven together.’
– Kym Deyn, Magma
‘These tender and intricate poems chart a journey across continents, chronicling a childhood of unrest and violence in Iran and the nuances of relocation to America and Scotland. Lotfi’s work interweaves the personal with the national, illuminating past and present tragedies through the quotidian rhythms of a new existence abroad.’
– Verak Yuen, PN Review
‘Her book explores ‘the instinct to cling, / at any cost, to the place you are rooted’ through poems about a childhood in Tehran dislocated by revolution and an adulthood displaced in the US and Scotland.’
– Maia Elsner, Poetry London
‘Again and again her radiant language turns over the loss of family intimacy and identity caused by political upheaval and violence…[the] book mourns these losses and separations, while at the same time rendering the possibilities of a capacious, multifaceted sense of belonging.’
– Rebecca Tamás, The Guardian, Best Recent Poetry Roundup
‘The Wrong Person to Ask by Marjorie Lotfi is a wondrous treasure – elegant poems of great tenderness and detail, vivid in heart and imagery, mesmerising in power. Whole worlds and people shimmer alive through scenes and stories of exile, departure, arrival, but most importantly, clear witness and remembrance. A deeply honouring book fully built of love.’
– Naomi Shihab Nye
‘Against this backdrop of rigid political boundaries, Lotfi’s collection is also in intimate conversation with the natural world, a relationship which offers new ways of understanding emplacement beyond ideas of nationhood.’
– Andrés Ordorica, The Skinny
