Suli by Anastasia Bortsvadze

Suli (Georgian for “soul”) grapples with memory and loss for a place that no longer exists. Anastasia Bortsvadze explores what it means to live, dream, and build a life in America  while carrying the weight of Georgian displacement. She writes about the impossibility of return: how memories fade until you can’t remember if autumn leaves were golden back home, how you resemble relatives you’ve never met, how your grandmother’s careful pomegranate-peeling ritual revealed a love you only understood too late. Through yearning for the soil of home, hiding from trauma that haunts relentlessly, and refusing to suffer politely, Suli traces a journey toward hard-won self-acceptance. This debut introduces the first queer Georgian-American voice in published poetry.  #DiasporaPoetry #ImmigrantVoices #CulturalDisplacement  #LyricPoetry #GeorgianHeritage