The Sad Boy's Starter Pack

In this intimate and modern poetry collection, Zubayr Charles seeks healing amidst the shocks of personal and social rejection, navigating the paradoxes of identity and love. Vivid, brave and witty, the sad boy’s starter pack is a reclamation of the self and a homecoming for the lonely and estranged. Invoking a strong sense of place, Charles’ Cape Town shapes what it means to be queer and Coloured. With a deft hand, the poet shapes the city in turn. Charles’ poems explore the tension between desire and detachment, longing and all-consuming love. This volume takes familiar, timeless themes by storm, forging them anew with luminous self-possession.

Zubayr Charles is a Cape Town based multi-disciplinary writer with a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His work spans theatre, prose and poetry. His plays – Mercy, Please, don’t call me moffie, The Battered Housewives’ Club, and this bra’s a psycho – have been staged at various theatre festivals around Cape Town. With eight years of experience teaching English, he brings both a pedagogical and deeply personal lens to his writing. His essays have appeared on LitNet and Cape Creative Collective.