Bustle Wonders: 'Who is Warsan Shire? The Poet From Beyoncé's 'Lemonade'

Yes! We've talked a bit about Warsan Shire's brilliance. Now Bustle's taking notice too thanks to Beyoncé's mind-blowing Lemonade. Really you have to watch it–but read this first:

If the cultural swallowing up of Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie following Beyoncé's use of her words in her self-titled 2013 album is any indication, you're about to hear the name Warsan Shire featured a lot more prominently. But the Kenya-born, UK-raised poet, whose parents are both of Somali ancestry, began making a name for herself long before she ever got a prominent shout out from Beyoncé in Lemonade. So if you don't know her already, it's time to get to know who Warsan Shire is and why she was featured in Lemonade.

For one, Shire is an incredibly accomplished artist. In 2013, after winning the UK's Brunel University inaugural prize for African Poetry, she became London's first Young Poet Laureate, and the following year she was named Queensland, Australia's poet in residence. While she has not yet published a full length work, in 2011 and 2015, respectively, she released two pamphlets, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth and Her Blue Body. Oh, and perhaps most impressive of all? She's still in her 20s.

In addition to her work as the poetry editor for SPOOK Magazine, whose website says it's "a space for alternative voices, emerging narratives and noted storytellers," Shire is also a sometime poetry teacher and infrequent tweeter, quoting Margaret Atwood alongside Pusha T with equal bravado when she uses her account. As a 2015 profile written about Shire in The New Yorker noted, "It’s a rare poet who can write movingly about African migration to Europe and also tweet humorously about the VH1 reality show Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta."

Continue at Bustle.