‘An extraordinary book … A joy to read and to think with.’ — The New Statesman

‘Offer[s], above all else, hope for humanity … should be required reading for everyone.’ — The Guardian

This is a book of failure and mistakes; it begins with what is stolen from us and proposes only an invitation to imagine.

In these playful written experiments, Lola Olufemi navigates the space between what is and what could be. Weaving together fragmentary reflections in prose and poetry, this is an exploration of the possibility of living differently, grounded in black feminist scholarship and political organising.

Olufemi shows that the horizon is not an immaterial state we gesture toward. Instead, propelled by the motion of thinking against and beyond, we must invent the future now and never let go of the otherwise.

‘An extraordinary book … A joy to read and to think with.’ — The New Statesman

‘Offer[s], above all else, hope for humanity … should be required reading for everyone.’ — The Guardian

‘Expansive and generous.’ — TANK

‘A groundbreaking and necessary read.’ — Book Riot

‘I felt my brain spark and spin with possibility and confrontation … in all its bright, rich generosity, it reminds me that our reality is all a fiction.’ — gal-dem

‘One of the most interesting and inspiring feminist thinkers working in Britain today, Olufemi here cements her reputation as a powerful literary voice as well as a key political theorist.’ — Red Pepper

‘Reading this book encouraged me and made me feel less alone … I cannot recommend this book enough.’ — Bad Form

‘A necessary intervention … to go beyond the experiential and into the experimental.’ — LSE Review of Books

‘Intelligent, brave and challenging.’ — Totally Dublin

‘What is given is the act of giving itself—an invitation to think.’ — Review 31

‘Lola’s writing crackles kindness and oozes fury … Everybody needs to read this book.’ — SPAM

‘A manifestation, not a manifesto ... Genreless, genreful … a living gift with which to make gifts of life.’ — periodicities

‘Lola’s writing ... makes me embrace feeling like a dreamer.’ — Zoé Samudzi, co-author of As Black as Resistance

‘A balm that soothes the soul and eases the heart ... an open invitation through the portal ... into the otherwise.’ — Gail Lewis, co-founder of the Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD)

‘Reading this book wrought magic in my spirit. I am floored! I am flying! … Here is some breath-giving medicine for this gasping historic moment. Here are some weapons for lovers, for feminists.’ — Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family and Full Surrogacy Now

‘Reminds us once more: the light is within us!’ — Imani Robinson, writer and curator

‘I was blown away ... It’s rare to come across a voice so committed to challenging every convention ... with such generosity, clarity and freshness of tone.’ — Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath and We That Are Young

‘Alive with ideas, jokes, dreams, rage and wisdom.’ — Sita Balani, co-author of Empire’s Endgame

PODCAST: Lola Olufemi, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise — Books Up Close

EXTRACT: Wandering Concepts— Kunsthalle Bratislava

REVIEW: Laying Out a Space — Review 31

What to Read When the World Feels Hopeless — Book Riot

Edinburgh International Book Festival: Week two recap — The Skinny

Lola Olufemi on Experiments in Imagining Otherwise — The Skinny

REVIEW: Experiments in Imagining Otherwise — LSE Review of Books

EXTRACT: Do Nothing, Feel Everything— Kunsthalle Bratislava

What Form Does Queerness Take? With Lola Olufemi, Nat Raha and Pear Nuallak — Bad Form

What we’re reading — The Guardian

EXTRACT: Everyday atrocity — Decolonising Geography

PODCAST: Lola Olufemi: The Radical Power of Imagination — Tender Buttons

In Conversation with Lola Olufemi — TANK, Issue 90, Spring 2022

Wasafiri Wonders: Lola Olufemi — Wasafiri

REVIEW: This Book Made Me Feel Less Alone — Bad Form

REVIEW: Experiments in Imagining Otherwise — Totally Dublin

What was on gal-dem’s 2021 bookshelf? — gal-dem

The best books of 2021 — Red Pepper, 18 December 2021

SPAM DEEP CUTS 2021 — SPAM

REVIEW: Experiments in Imagining Otherwise — periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics

Books of the Year — The New Statesman

EXTRACT: Red by Lola Olufemi — Wasafiri

28 October 2021
Paperback / 9781914221057
ebook / 9781914221118
198 × 129 mm
146 pages