In places raw, sexy, vulnerable and challenging, Kaan K's debut poetry collection asks what it means to embody a border.
They dive deep into their Cypriot heritage - pondering their connection to an island with the world's only divided capital city.
They reflect on the divisions in their personal life - cultural, spiritual, sexual. Rosewater is a homage to trans tenderness, a cry for connection and a search for hope, joy and change.
The collection is roughly based on the theme "The land isn't binary and neither am I". It's an exploration of what it means to be from a border town; from a country split in two as a wound of colonialism and war; and to be queer and trans in this context; it includes references to racism, transphobia, homophobia, domestic abuse and intergenerational trauma; it speaks frankly about suicide in the trans community. It is also a collection about surviving, about chosen family, about finding home and joy. There are some explicit sex poems in there. Take gentleness while reading.