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unrest in the nebulae
In unrest in the nebulae, Gitan Djeli wields prose poetry to archive five hundred years of exploitative colonization, ecocide, extinction, militarization and deportation, slavery, indenture, negotiated nationhood, postcolonial plantation structures, and apologist histories.
Writing in a queer anticolonial poetics, and using lines of Kreol, Gitan Djeli mines the tension that emerges between colonialism and language, disarticulating the myth-making aesthetics of the colonial world.
She tells the story of the ‘other slavery’ in the Indian Ocean and its histories of enslavement and indenture through a subversive, fragmented poetics, and often from the perspective its geologic witnesses—a misnamed ocean or the range of mountains within it or the volcanic idea of islands. In a charge of resistance to the catastrophe of modernity, unrest in the nebulae takes seriously Sylvia Wynter’s invitation to engage “a new science of the word.”
Writing in a queer anticolonial poetics, and using lines of Kreol, Gitan Djeli mines the tension that emerges between colonialism and language, disarticulating the myth-making aesthetics of the colonial world.
She tells the story of the ‘other slavery’ in the Indian Ocean and its histories of enslavement and indenture through a subversive, fragmented poetics, and often from the perspective its geologic witnesses—a misnamed ocean or the range of mountains within it or the volcanic idea of islands. In a charge of resistance to the catastrophe of modernity, unrest in the nebulae takes seriously Sylvia Wynter’s invitation to engage “a new science of the word.”
- GenresPoetry
Kindle Edition
Published February 13, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 21, 2026
3,75 ⭐️
I’m very sad I didn’t love this, it had all the potential but at times it felt theoretically forced in a way that lost me halfway through the poems. And there’s nothing wrong with theoretically dense poetry (I love me some theory), here it just felt like it was trying to incorporate too much in between the lines. There were a couple of poems, and especially stanzas I really liked and resonated with, but the entire thing just felt like it fell short of my expectations :(
I’m very sad I didn’t love this, it had all the potential but at times it felt theoretically forced in a way that lost me halfway through the poems. And there’s nothing wrong with theoretically dense poetry (I love me some theory), here it just felt like it was trying to incorporate too much in between the lines. There were a couple of poems, and especially stanzas I really liked and resonated with, but the entire thing just felt like it fell short of my expectations :(
May 10, 2026
I need to spend more time with this poetry which is also called a novel written by Gitan Djeli, a London based Mauritian writer. All I know is I was in the presence of greatness. I loved the allusions to nature, to language, to worldwide colonialism, to slavery, to individuals and creators.
Here is a quote from poet and leader Alexis Pauline Gumbs:
“Can you read a kreol text without colonizing it? As I read unrest in the nebula, I experienced the beauty of refusing to consume or colonize language while finding myself at the edge of geological layers, and compacted histories of earth. These prose poems document a conversation far too old for any one lifetime, charting violence and possibility, rupture and healing. This book is reteaching me how to read.”
And from the book
lalang twist
my body dances to
metric syllables
deranging the par-
ataxis archive
it stirs links kicks with no
syntactic connector
blows from the mind
of visc e ra li ty
my voice flutters within
four tongues
Here is a quote from poet and leader Alexis Pauline Gumbs:
“Can you read a kreol text without colonizing it? As I read unrest in the nebula, I experienced the beauty of refusing to consume or colonize language while finding myself at the edge of geological layers, and compacted histories of earth. These prose poems document a conversation far too old for any one lifetime, charting violence and possibility, rupture and healing. This book is reteaching me how to read.”
And from the book
lalang twist
my body dances to
metric syllables
deranging the par-
ataxis archive
it stirs links kicks with no
syntactic connector
blows from the mind
of visc e ra li ty
my voice flutters within
four tongues
November 1, 2025
Thank you to Edelweiss for the E-ARC! This E-ARC was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.
This collection is a reminder not to forget the histories and languages of people that are being erased more and more each day. In history books, in the news, on the internet. A reminder that lives can never be truly erased for good as long as the language is still spoken, the people still laugh, and the stories are still told.
The feminism that is outlined boldly in this collection, as well, is just perfection. Women are the key focus and the key narrators of every poem. Never spoken over, never written out.
My absolute favorite out of this collection was "Djinn".
Please read this when it comes out, or if you can get your hands on an early copy. You will not regret it!
This collection is a reminder not to forget the histories and languages of people that are being erased more and more each day. In history books, in the news, on the internet. A reminder that lives can never be truly erased for good as long as the language is still spoken, the people still laugh, and the stories are still told.
The feminism that is outlined boldly in this collection, as well, is just perfection. Women are the key focus and the key narrators of every poem. Never spoken over, never written out.
My absolute favorite out of this collection was "Djinn".
Please read this when it comes out, or if you can get your hands on an early copy. You will not regret it!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews