48 Canadian poetry collections to watch for in fall 2022
From typewriter poems to verse accompanied by visuals, to new works by viral Instagram poets, there's something for every reader in the vast slate of poetry books coming out in fall 2022.
Smog Mother by John Wall Barger
In his sixth collection of poetry, Smog Mother, John Wall Barger examines notions of home in wide-ranging poems that traverse the world, from a protest rally on the streets of Bangkok to a train trip on the Trans-Mongolian Railway.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
John Wall Barger is the author of five previous books of poetry: Pain-proof Men, Hummingbird, The Book of Festus, The Mean Game and Resurrection Fail. He is a contract editor at Frontenac House and teaches in the creative writing program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Witness Back at Me by Weyman Chan
In Witness Back at Me, Calgary poet Weyman Chan explores themes of dislocation and belonging, looking back at the childhood loss of his mother to breast cancer and through poems that intertwine in a larger narrative and work toward understanding and healing.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
Weyman Chan is the author of five previous books of poetry. His work has been shortlisted for the Acorn-Plantos Award for Peoples Poetry, the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, and the Governor General's Literary Awards. He was the 2021 recipient of the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize.
The Oysters I Bring to Banquets by Gary Geddes
Veteran poet Gary Geddes's latest collection, The Oysters I Bring to Banquets, is a series of hymns to art, beauty and human dignity, with poems touching on everything from the building of a greenhouse to the struggle of characters in classical legends, to Yukon adventures and the plight of Monarch butterflies in the Mexican highlands.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
B.C.-based author Gary Geddes has written and edited more than 50 books, and won several literary awards, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region), the Lt.-Governor's Award for Literary Excellence and the Gabriela Mistral Prize.
Dream of Me as Water by David Ly
In his second book of poetry, Dream of Me as Water, David Ly expands on the themes in his debut Mythical Man. He uses water as a central metaphor to explore how identity is never a stagnant concept, but rather fluid and ever-evolving.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
David Ly is a B.C.-based writer and editor whose 2020 debut poetry collection, Mythical Man, was shortlisted for the 2021 Relit Poetry Award. He is also co-editor with Daniel Zomparelli for Queer Little Nightmares: an Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry. CBC Books named him a writer to watch in 2020.
Another Way To Split Water by Alycia Pirmohamed
2019 CBC Poetry Prize winner Alycia Pirmohamed's debut collection, Another Way To Split Water, is a lyrical exploration of how ancestral memory transforms across generations, through stories told and retold. Her poems touch on womanhood, belonging, faith, intimacy and the natural world.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
Alycia Pirmohamed is a Canadian-born poet based in Scotland. She is the co-founder of the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, a co-organizer of the Ledbury Poetry Critics Program, and currently teaches creative writing at the University of Cambridge.
WJD by Khashayar Mohammadi
WJD is a poetry collection that explores the power of an individual's lived experience of the world, particularly those with Western Asian roots. The poetry irreverently compares and contrasts the various ideologies and spiritual perspectives of Islamicate cultures. The book also includes The OceanDweller, a translation of Saeed Tavanaee Marvi's experimental tale with themes of astronomy, marine biology and the power of poetry.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
Mohammadi is a poet and translator from Iran who now lives in Toronto. They were shortlisted for the 2021 Austin Clarke Prize in poetry and are the winner of the Vallum Poetry Prize 2021. Their debut poetry collection, Me, You, Then Snow, was published in 2021.
Exculpatory Lilies by Susan Musgrave
Renowned Canadian poet Susan Musgrave lost her husband in 2018 and her daughter in 2021. Her newest poetry collection, Exculpatory Lilies, explores this expansive grief but also the natural world and the connection between the two, searching for the beauty in the emotional highs and lows of life.
When you can read it: Sept. 1, 2022
Susan Musgrave is a poet and writer based in B.C. She has has received awards for poetry, fiction, nonfiction, personal essay, children's writing and for her work as an editor. She has published many books, including Love You More, More Blueberries and Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug.
Surface Tension by Derek Beaulieu
Surface Tension is visual poetry for the post-pandemic age, asking the reader to imagine letters as images instead of text and find meaning in their shapes as Derek Beaulieu molds them into Dali-style collages.
When you can read it: Sept. 6, 2022
Derek Beaulieu is the author or editor of more than 25 books of poetry, prose and criticism. He has exhibited his visual work across Canada, the United States and Europe. He is currently the director of literary arts at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Banff's poet laureate.
Icarus, Falling of Birds by Harry Thurston, with photographs by Thaddeus Holownia
Icarus, Falling of Birds, a collaboration between poet Harry Thurston and photographer Thaddeus Holownia, memorializes the deaths of migratory songbirds who were drawn to a 100-foot-high flare at the Canaport Liquefied Natural Gas plant in Saint John. The pair were able to gain access to evidence held at the New Brunswick Museum, and have produced an elegy to the thousands of birds that perished.
When you can read it: Sept. 6, 2022
Harry Thurston is a poet, journalist, and author of more than two dozen books of poetry and non-fiction.
Thaddeus Holownia is emeritus professor of fine arts at Mount Allison University. His photographs have been exhibited and collected at museums throughout North America and Europe.
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana is Latin for "human voice" — particularly apt given poet Adebe DeRango-Adem's exploration of word and sound in a world that uplifts some voices over others. Drawing on her own multilingual upbringing, DeRango-Adem offers up poems that remind us of the work required to raise our voices to transform society.
When you can read it: Sept. 8, 2022
Adebe DeRango-Adem is the author of three previous full-length poetry books to date: Ex Nihilo, Terra Incognita and The Unmooring. She lives in Toronto.
Test Piece by Sheryda Warrener
Influenced by visual art, the poems in Test Piece bring images and lines together through patterns and rhythm. A collection that began with Sheryda Warrener's impulse to see herself more clearly, Test Piece offers up a broader meditation on seeing and vision.
When you can read it: Sept. 13, 2022
Sheryda Warrener is the author of the poetry collections Hard Feelings and Floating is Everything. She is a recipient of The Puritan's Thomas Morton Memorial Prize for poetry and was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize. Warrener lives in Vancouver and teaches poetry and interdisciplinary forms in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.
Durable Goods by James Pollock
Durable Goods is a collection of poems about everyday technology. James Pollock brings everything from microwaves to kettles to life — revealing that these objects that surround us are in many ways reflections of ourselves. In reimagining the tools we use, Pollock suggests that the most durable good is language itself.
When you can read it: Sept. 14, 2022
James Pollock is the author of Sailing to Babylon, which was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry. His other books include You Are Here: Essays on the Art of Poetry in Canada and The Essential Daryl Hine. He grew up in southern Ontario, and is now a professor of English at Loras College in Iowa. He lives in Madison, Wisc.
Some People Fall in the Lodge and Then Eat Berries All Winter by annie ross
In her timely follow-up to Pots and Other Living Beings, Maya/Irish writer and artist annie ross explores themes of environmental justice, extinction and animal rights through poetry, prose and her own woodcut artwork in Some People Fall in the Lodge and Then Eat Berries All Winter.
When you can read it: Sept. 15, 2022
annie ross is a working artist and a professor in the department of Indigenous studies at Simon Fraser University.
Bent Back Tongue by Garry Gottfriedson
In Bent Back Tongue, Secwépemc rancher and renowned poet Garry Gottfriedson explores contemporary masculinity, politics and love — all with an unflinching eye on colonial history but also celebrating love, land, family and the self.
When you can read it: Sept. 16, 2022
Garry Gottfriedson is from Kamloops, B.C. He is strongly rooted in his Secwépemc (Shuswap) cultural teachings. In the late 1980s, Gottfriedson studied under Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Faithfull and others at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo. He is the author of 10 books, including Clinging to Bone and Skin Like Mine. Currently, he works at Thompson Rivers University.
Exit Wounds by Tariq Malik
In Exit Wounds, Indo-Canadian poet Tariq Malik draws on his own family's experiences of immigration to uncover what it truly means to belong. Combining traditional Punjabi mythology with contemporary events that have shaped the lives of immigrants, his poems resonate with those who have experienced feeling out of place — yet recognize the truth of their own experiences.
When you can read it: Sept. 16, 2022
Born in Pakistani Punjab, Vancouver-based author Tariq Malik survived three wars, two migrations and two decades of slaving in the Kuwaiti desert before arriving in Canada. For the past four decades, he has worked across poetry, fiction and the visual arts, working in response to the changing world around him and his own place in it.
Fire Cider Rain by Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin
In her debut poetry collection, Fire Cider Rain, Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin examines cultural identity through the lives of three Chinese-Mauritian women and the familial bonds that tie them to each other and their home country. Setting her work in the Mauritian landscape and waterways of southern Ontario, Ng Cheng Hin uses water as a central metaphor for the movement of bodies, stories and cultures.
When you can read it: Sept. 20, 2022
Rhiannon Ng Cheng Hin was born in Edinburgh and lives in the Gatineau Valley in Quebec. Her poetry has been published in Gutter, The Malahat Review, Grain, Arc Poetry Magazine and elsewhere. She currently serves as associate poetry editor with Plenitude magazine.
The Most Charming Creatures by Gary Barwin
A follow-up to Gary Barwin's collection of selected poetry, The Most Charming Creatures continues his examination of the possibilities of what a poem can be. Barwin harkens back to 1860s scientific illustrator Ernst Haeckel's concept of the "most charming creatures," turning his lens on how language, culture and the self can be perhaps just as mysterious.
When you can read it: Sept. 20, 2022
The bestselling author of 26 books of fiction and poetry, Gary Barwin has won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, and has been a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Hamilton, Ont.
A Is for Acholi by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek
A Is for Acholi is a lyrical collection that plays with language to explore diaspora and the marginalization of the Acholi people of northeast Africa. Otoniya J. Okot Bitek traces a route from history's past to a more hopeful present.
When you can read it: Sept. 20, 2022
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry 100 Days was nominated for the 2017 BC Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award and the 2017 Alberta Book Awards. It won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Lushei Prize for African Poetry. She was also longlisted for the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize. She is an assistant professor of Black Creativity at Queen's University.
This Is a Stickup by Amber McMillan
In This Is a Stickup, Amber McMillan delves into grief — and allows the reader to grieve alongside her, touching on everything from violence to love. Through indelible images — a man peering in a window; a swing set on fire — McMillan offers poems both intimate yet powerful.
When you can read it: Sept. 20, 2022
Amber McMillan is the author of the short story collection The Running Trees, the memoir The Woods: A Year on Protection Island and the poetry collection We Can't Ever Do This Again. She lives in New Brunswick.
If I Didn't Love the River by Robert Priest
Through sonnets, free verse, prose poems, villanelles, ghazals and aphorisms, If I Didn't Love the River speaks directly to the polarizations of our time. Robert Priest covers the gamut of emotion — from angst, anger, anguish and despair to sheer delight — in ruminating on the things that make us human: love, death, sex and illness.
When you can read it: Sept. 20, 2022
Robert Priest's words have been debated in the legislature, posted on buses, quoted in the Farmers' Almanac, and turned into a hit song. He lives in Toronto.
The History Forest by Michael Trussler
In The History Forest, Michael Trussler explores the contradictory nature of what it means to be alive in this strange era, grappling with everything from nuclear war, school shootings and ecological destruction alongside his own experiences with mental health, aging and loss.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2022
Michael Trussler is an award-winning author whose previous works include the short fiction collection Encounters and the poetry collection Accidental Animals. He is a professor of English at the University of Regina.
The Program by Megan Fennya Jones
The Program follows a young woman travelling between Paris and New York to pursue a modelling career. Jones draws on a keenly observant narrative style in poems delving into mental health, romance and female suffering to examine how we are seen — and how we see ourselves.
When you can read it: Sept. 24, 2022
Megan Fennya Jones's poetry has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Room Magazine and PRISM International, in the anthology The City Series Number One: Vancouver, and the chapbook Normal Women. She lives in Vancouver.
Healing Through Words by Rupi Kaur
Bestselling poet Rupi Kaur returns with a book of guided poetry writing exercises that encourages others to explore trauma, loss, heartache, love and healing through writing that taps into the same vulnerability that has made her poems resonate with so many readers.
When you can read it: Sept. 27, 2022
Ontario poet, artist and performer Rupi Kaur first garnered attention on Instagram, where she continues to share her poems and simple line drawings with millions of followers. At 21, Kaur wrote, illustrated and self-published her first poetry collection, milk and honey. Next came its artistic sibling, the sun and her flowers. These collections have sold over 10 million copies and have been translated into over 40 languages.
The End Is in the Middle by Daniel Scott Tysdal
Daniel Scott Tysdal's latest poetry collection, The End Is in the Middle, examines madness as lived experience and artistic method. Inspired by Al Jaffee's illustrated fold-ins in MAD magazine, Tysdal explores living with mental illness through the medium of the fold-in poem — instead of ending at the bottom of the page, each poem is completed by having the reader fold the page to reveal the last line.
When you can read it: Sept. 27, 2022
Daniel Scott Tysdal is an award-winning writer, filmmaker and teacher. He is the author of three poetry collections, including the ReLit Award-winning Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially Dangerous Method. In 2015, he gave a viral-trending TEDx talk, "Everything You Need to Write a Poem (and How It Can Save a Life)." Tysdal teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
Stones to Harvest / Escarmouches de la Chair by Henry Beissel
Stones to Harvest / Escarmouches de la Chair is a bilingual edition of Henry Bissel's 1993 work. Stones to Harvest / Escarmouches de la Chair is a lyrical cycle of 47 poems set over all four seasons, sketching images inspired by the flora and fauna of eastern Ontario and southern Quebec, where Beissel lived and worked.
When you can read it: Oct. 1, 2022
Henry Beissel is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, translator and editor with more than 30 books published. Among his 23 collections of poetry are Seasons of Blood and Stones to Harvest. Beissel is a distinguished emeritus professor at Concordia University, where he taught English literature for 30 years and founded the creative writing program. He now lives in Ottawa.
The Punishment by Joseph Dandurand
B.C. writer Joseph Dandurand returns with The Punishment, a collection rooted in story, with scenes of residential school, the psych ward, the streets and the river. Through his poems, he shares what he sees: the great eagles and small birds; his culture and teachings; Vancouver's East Side; and his Kwantlen community.
When you can read it: Oct. 1, 2022
- Joseph A. Dandurand shares his misery, joy and laughter in poetry collection The East Side of It All
Joseph Dandurand is a member of the Kwantlen First Nation, east of Vancouver. He is the director of the Kwantlen Cultural Centre and the author of several books of poetry, including 2020's The East Side of It All, which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. In 2021, Dandurand received the BC Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence.
First-Time Listener by Jennifer Zilm
First-Time Listener explores the digitalization of our 21st-century world while reaching back to the past — touching on everything from the Bible to CNN in the process. The collection ends with Lost Time, a long poem that references Proust's Combray in the process of looking back at the author's own youth in Surrey, B.C., exploring the intersections between class, sex, gender and language.
When you can read it: Oct. 1, 2022
Jennifer Zilm is the author of the two previous collections, Waiting Room and The Missing Field.
Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies by Jan Zwicky, with photographs by Robert V. Moody
Sixty-Seven Ontological Studies is a collaboration between writer Jan Zwicky and photographer Robert V. Moody, presenting 49 poems and 18 photographs that come together in conversation, offering lyrical reflections on the living world.
When you can read it: Oct. 1, 2022
Jan Zwicky is the author of 20 books of poetry and prose, including Songs for Relinquishing the Earth, The Long Walk, and Wisdom & Metaphor. Her many honours include the Governor General's Literary Award and the Dorothy Livesay Prize, and she was named to the Order of Canada in 2022. She currently lives on the west coast of Canada.
Robert V. Moody is a celebrated photographer and acclaimed mathematician. Born in England but raised in Canada, he now divides his time between Pasadena, Calif., and Victoria. He is an officer of the Order of Canada.
Sheets by Cameron Anstee
Prompted by receiving the Olivetti Lettera 30 typewriter that belonged to poet William Hawkins after his death in 2016, the minimalist works in Cameron Anstee's Sheets explore the poetic form through the typewriter as both a machine and mode of composition.
When you can read it: Oct. 4, 2022
Cameron Anstee is the author of one previous collection of poetry, Book of Annotations, and the editor of The Collected Poems of William Hawkins. He is the editor and publisher of Apt. 9 Press and holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Ottawa. He lives in Ottawa.
Wolf Sonnets by R.P. LaRose
In Wolf Sonnets, Métis writer R.P. LaRose retools the sonnet's classical form for the current age, reflecting on names, numbers and interconnectedness. Depicting his ancestors as wolves — symbols of survival and protection — LaRose interrogates the inequality, greed and racism at the root of colonialism.
When you can read it: Oct. 6, 2022
R.P. LaRose grew up on the Prairies near Buffalo Lake, Alta., and the boreal foothills of the Rocky Mountains. His poetry has appeared in PRISM International and The Walrus and he was longlisted for the 2016 CBC Poetry Prize. A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, he currently resides in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan (Edmonton).
Stations of the Crossed by Carol Rose GoldenEagle
In Stations of the Crossed, Cree/Dene writer Carol Rose GoldenEagle uses her childhood memory of the church rite "stations of the cross" as a springboard for critical reflection, examining the dark legacy of the residential school system, church and government policies and their ongoing impacts on Indigenous people today.
When you can read it: Oct. 11, 2022
Cree/Dene writer and artist Carol Rose GoldenEagle was appointed Saskatchewan's poet laureate in 2021. She is also the author of the novel Bearskin Diary. Her first book of poetry, Hiraeth, was shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award in 2019. Her latest novel, The Narrows of Fear (Wapawikoscikanik), was published in 2020 and won the 2021 Rasmussen & Co. Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. She lives in Regina Beach.
tend by Kate Hargreaves
Kate Hargreaves' second collection, tend, explores the feeling of being distanced from loved ones — both physically and emotionally — and tending to the things that fracture. Through her immersive verse, Hargreaves pulls readers into the space that bodies and language inhabit.
When you can read it: Oct. 13, 2022
Kate Hargreaves is the author of the poetry collection Leak, as well as Jammer Star, a roller-derby novel for young readers. She holds an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Windsor, where she received the Governor General's Gold Medal in Graduate Studies. Hargreaves is also a book designer. She lives and works in Windsor.
Bature! West African Haikai by Richard Stevenson
Bature! West African Haikai is an utaniki, a poetic travel journal comprised of haiku and various other Japanese imagist sequences. The collection documents a Volkswagen journey Richard Stevenson and his family took from northeastern Nigeria down to Lagos and up the west coast of West Africa. Through his poems, Stevenson celebrates life in West Africa — where he lived for two years as a volunteer development worker — before the realities of current violence in the region.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Richard Stevenson recently retired to Nanaimo, B.C. after 30 years teaching English and creative writing at Lethbridge College. He has published 30 books and released an album of jazz and poetry. Forthcoming is a lyric/haikai children's collection and he is currently collaborating with his daughter, Marika, on a Vancouver Island photo/haikai project.
Forget-Sadness-Grass by Antony Di Nardo
In Forget-Sadness-Grass, Antony Di Nardo takes the reader on a journey through mortality, nostalgia and the cycle of loss and discovery — with the daylily as a key motif and companion. The book takes its name from the Chinese ideogram for that orange flower, which makes its way into poetry that blurs the lines between mysticism and lyricism.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Montreal-born Antony Di Nardo is the author of five previous collections of poetry. His work has been translated into several languages and appears widely in journals and anthologies both in Canada and internationally. He has won Exile's Gwendolyn MacEwen Prize for best suite of poems, and was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize.
Refugia by Patrick Horner
Refugia is a poetic novel told through field notes, letters and scientific data. The story follows Emily and Roland as they experience growing shifts in their perception, in their bodies, and even in the flow of linear time — revealing science in all its imperfect beauty.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Patrick Horner is a Canadian poet and engineer living in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he works to develop new water treatment technology. He co-wrote and co-produced Waste Dump, a serial radio play, and his poetry and fiction have been published in Wax, Dandelion and Broken Pencil.
The Big Melt by Emily Riddle
The Big Melt is a debut poetry collection rooted in Nehiyaw thought and urban millennial life events. Part memoir, part research project, it draws on writer Emily Riddle's experience working in Indigenous governance and her own family's experience — demonstrating that governance is as much about interpersonal relationships as it is about law and policy.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Emily Riddle is Nehiyaw and a member of the Alexander First Nation (Kipohtakaw). A writer, editor, policy analyst, language learner and visual artist, she lives in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). Her writing has been published intThe Globe and Mail, Teen Vogue, The Malahat Review and Room Magazine. She was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Poetry Prize, and was awarded the Edmonton Artists' Trust Award in 2021.
How to Hold a Pebble by Jaspreet Singh
Jaspreet Singh's second collection of poems, How to Hold a Pebble, engages with memory, place, language and migration, exploring strategies for survival and action amid the realities of colonialization, climate change and other existential issues facing humans in the Anthropocene.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Jaspreet Singh is the author of the novels Helium, Chef and Face, the story collection Seventeen Tomatoes, the poetry collections November and How to Hold a Pebble, and the memoir My Mother, My Translator. He lives in Calgary.
Shapeshifters by Délani Valin
In Shapeshifters, Délani Valin explores the cost of finding the perfect mask. Through a lens of urban Métis experience and neurodivergence, Valin takes on a series of personas — including the Starbucks siren, Barbie and the Michelin Man — as an act of empathy as resistance. Her poems explore ways that individuals try to fit into a world that resists them, and argue for shifting the shape of that world instead.
When you can read it: Oct. 15, 2022
Délani Valin is neurodivergent and Métis with Nehiyaw, Saulteaux, French Canadian and Czech ancestry. Her poetry has been awarded The Malahat Review's Long Poem Prize and subTerrain's Lush Triumphant Award. She is on the editorial board of Room and The Malahat Review, and lives on traditional and unceded Snuneymuxw territory (Nanaimo, B.C.).
Scars and Stars by Jesse Thistle
Jesse Thistle, the author of the bestselling memoir From the Ashes — a Canada Reads 2020 finalist — returns with the poetry collection Scars and Stars. Scars and Stars charts his own history and the stories of people from his past, including the complex legacies of family, parenthood and community.
When you can read it: Oct. 18, 2022
Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree, from Prince Albert, Sask., and an assistant professor in humanities at York University in Toronto. His memoir, From the Ashes, won the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction, the Indigenous Voices Award, the High Plains Book Award, and was also a finalist on Canada Reads 2020. He lives in Hamilton, Ont.
Pistachios in My Pocket by Sareh Farmand
Sareh Farmand's debut collection, Pistachios in My Pocket, tells the story of her family's escape from Iran and their experiences as immigrants to Canada. Using family anecdotes, memory, public documents and other indelible images to outline her family's story, Pistachios in My Pocket explores themes of loss, home and belonging — recounting the ways immigrants remain haunted after fleeing for safety, and what it means to resettle in a new place.
When you can read it: Oct. 25, 2022
Sareh Farmand was born in Tehran, Iran at the start of the Islamic Revolution, and grew up in Vancouver. Her writing has been published in Sky Island Journal, The Elephant Journal, and Pelak52. She is the co-founder of The Wordshop Collective, a boutique writing and editing firm. Sareh lives in Vancouver.
Derelict Bicycles by Dale Tracy
In Derelict Bicycles, Dale Tracy mines the intersection between the surreal and the philosophical, drawing on the likes of Samuel Beckett in poems that reveal startling surprises amidst quiet enigmas.
When you can read it: Oct. 30, 2022
Dale Tracy is the author of the chapbooks The Mystery of Ornament and Celebration Machine. Her poetry has appeared in filling Station, Touch the Donkey and The Goose. She is a faculty member in the English department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
LVOE by Atticus
Bestselling Instagram poet Atticus's fourth poetry collection, LVOE, uses his immediately recognizable lyrical style for an exploration of self-love, meditation, love and loss, paired with sketches that help bring his words to life.
When you can read it: Nov. 1, 2022
B.C.-raised, California-based New York Times bestselling poet Atticus is a storyteller, traveller and observer who has chosen to remain anonymous, wearing a mask in photographs and at public appearances. He is the author of Love Her Wild, The Dark Between Stars and The Truth About Magic. He continues to share his poetry and images on Instagram, where he has 1.6 million followers.
Learned by Carellin Brooks
Learned is set in 1990s London, alternating between the storied quads of Oxford University and queer culture in the recesses of the city's pubs. Carellin Brooks' poems explore pain, permission and pleasure — in the process chronicling an intimate education in bodily memory.
When you can read it: Nov. 1, 2022
Carellin Brooks is the author of One Hundred Days of Rain, which won the 2016 ReLit Award for Fiction and the 2016 Edmund White Award for Debut LGBT+ Fiction. She is also the author of Fresh Hell, Every Inch a Woman and Wreck Beach. Brooks lives in Vancouver and is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia.
Canticles III (MMXXII) by George Elliott Clarke
In 2008, George Elliott Clarke began to write Canticles, an epic poem addressing the Transatlantic slave trade and colonial conquest. In Canticles III (MMXXII), Clarke looks at the history of the African Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, concluding his epic in his own inimitable style.
When you can read it: Nov. 1, 2022
Born and raised in Nova Scotia and now based in Toronto, poet and professor George Elliott Clarke is acclaimed for his narrative lyric suites (Whylah Falls and Execution Poems), his lyric "colouring books" (Blue, Black, Red and Gold), his selected poems (Blues and Bliss), his opera libretti and plays (Beatrice Chancy and Trudeau: Long March, Shining Path). He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and was the poet laureate of Toronto from 2012-2015, among many other honours.
Where the Sea Kuniks the Land by Ashley Qilavaq-Savard
A "kunik" is a traditional Inuit greeting in which someone places their nose on the other's cheek and breathes them in. In Where the Sea Kuniks the Land , Inuk writer Ashley Qilavaq-Savard extends that gesture of love in a collection of poems that celebrates the Arctic landscape and people.
When you can read it: Nov. 1, 2022
Ashley Qilavaq-Savard is an Inuk writer, artist and filmmaker born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She writes poetry about decolonizing narratives, healing from intergenerational trauma, and love of the land and culture. She has led acting and storytelling workshops for children and youth with the Qaggiavuut Performing Arts Society and the Labrador Creative Arts Festival.
oems by Matthew Tomkinson
oems is a collection of 36 lipogrammatic poems composed entirely of flat words which contain no ascending or descending letters. Stemming from Matthew Tomkinson's lived experience of obsessive-compulsive disorder, these poems circle the question of what remains after language has been altered in the compulsive tendencies of expression through writing.
When you can read it: Nov. 1, 2022
Matthew Tomkinson is a writer, composer and doctoral candidate in theatre studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of teh chapbook For a Long Time and the co-author of Archaic Torso of Gumby, an experimental short fiction collection.
Dissonance Engine by David Dowker
Dissonance Engine explores time, cognition and loss through prose poems, palindromes, fictional journal entries, a faux manifesto and collage poems.
When you can read it: Nov. 15, 2022
David Dowker was born in Kingston, Ont., but has lived most of his life in Toronto. He was the editor of The Alterran Poetry Assemblage from 1996 to 2004. He is the author of Machine Language, Virtualis: Topologies of the Unreal, co-written with Christine Stewart, and Mantis.
Love Hurries This by Hamish Guthrie
Love Hurries This, Hamish Guthrie's debut collection, is inspired by past people, places and experiences — including the streets of Toronto where he grew up, childhood summers at a farm outside of Guelph, Ont., and his wife's hometown in Montana. Readers are transported along on the journey through poems evoking the natural world and change of seasons.
When you can read it: Nov. 15, 2022
Hamish Guthrie lives with his wife in Oakville, Ont., where he taught high school English and drama for many years.
