Non-Essential Work

Judges' comments

With his latest collection of poetry, Omar Sakr has shown that the distance between art and artist can be as narrow as a single page. The poetic is truly personal here, with poems that range from an ode to his love of cheesy fries to that time a spider made it frightening to walk through a doorway. And while each of these poems reveals a wry wit, they are never shallow. There is depth and meaning in each sparkling line, with Sakr’s writing confidently assured in its skill and ability to find meaning in the most mundane of moments.

Non-Essential Work is a deeply Muslim collection of poetry, from the astonishment Sakr experiences at finding his Prophet disrespected so utterly in the bowels of Dante’s Inferno, to the reaction to rising anti-Muslim sentiment and rhetoric in the world around him. Indeed, the most powerful poem might be the blank page under the title ‘Poem after Christchurch’. There is rage and grief in these pages, but the reader will also find hope through inspiration and wonder.