Synopsis
“What is a best poem?” asks Best Canadian Poetry 2020 guest editor Marilyn Dumont, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of four poetry collections. “A best poem fulfills the promise set out in its first syllable, word, syntax, line break, and soundscape to its reader/listener. The work required to complete a poem takes risk, skill, and practice, and the poems selected for this anthology all exhibit such attributes.” In precise language that exposes the attitudes inherent in English, innovative forms that illuminate their content, and mastery of music akin to a composer’s score, the fifty poems collected here fulfill their promises and, in doing so, demonstrate the country’s rich diversity and talent for invention—and the promises it might fulfill as well.
Featuring introductions by series editor Anita Lahey and advisory editor Amanda Jernigan, and poems by:
Kazim Ali • Amber Dawn • Billy-Ray Belcourt • Brandi Bird • Selina Boan • Margret Bollerup • Rita Bouvier • Tim Bowling • Frances Boyle • Di Brandt • Rob Budde • Mugabi Byenkya • Dell Catherall • Margaret Christakos Ivan Coyote • Barry Dempster • Kyle Flemmer • Susan Haldane • Louise Bernice Halfe–Sky Dancer • Jane Eaton Hamilton • Maureen Scott Harris • Dallas Hunt • Ashley Hynd • Babo Kamel • Conor Kerr • Don Kerr • Fiona Tinwei Lam • Natalie Lim • Tanis MacDonald • Nyla Matuk • Sadie McCarney • Tara McGowan-Ross • Erín Moure • Roger Nash • Samantha Nock • Erin Noteboom • Abby Paige • Geoff Pevlin • Alycia Pirmohamed • Jana Prikryl • Jason Purcell • Armand Garnet Ruffo • Rebecca Salazar • Robyn Sarah • Erin Soros • Kevin Spenst • John Elizabeth Stintzi • Andrea Thompson • Sanna Wani • Adele Wiseman
About the Authors
Andrea Thompson is a poet, novelist, editor and educator. In 2005 her spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award and in 2019 her album, Soulorations earned her a League of Canadian Poets’ Golden-Beret Award for Excellence. She’s co-author of Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, and author of the novel, Over Our Heads. Thompson teaches through CAMH and the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She is a member of the Brick Books editorial collective and will be a featured author in Frontenac House’s Quintet series, autumn 2021.
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About the Authors
Anita Lahey’s latest book is The Last Goldfish: a True Tale of Friendship (Biblioasis, 2020). She’s also author of The Mystery Shopping Cart: Essays on Poetry and Culture (Palimpsest, 2013), and the Véhicule Press poetry collections Out to Dry in Cape Breton and Spinning Side Kick. The former was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and the Ottawa Book Award. An award-winning magazine journalist and past editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, Anita has served as series editor of the Best Canadian Poetry anthology since 2018. She lives in Ottawa, on unceded Alongonquin, Anishinabek territory.
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About the Authors
Nyla Matuk is the author of two books of poetry: Sumptuary Laws and Stranger, and the editor of an anthology of poems, Resisting Canada. In 2018, she served as the Mordecai Richler Writer in Residence at McGill University. She was born in Canada and has a mixed identity which includes Palestinian, Afghan, and Uzbek roots. Her poems have appeared in Best Canadian Poetry, New Poetries VI, The New Yorker, PN Review, The Walrus, Poetry Review and other publications in Canada and abroad.
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About the Authors
Geoff Pevlin is a writer, graphic designer, and innkeeper from St. John’s, Newfoundland. He has an MFA in writing and is the co-founder of Applebeard Editions. Check out his work at GeoffPevlin.com.
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About the Authors
Sanna Wani lives between Srinagar and Mississauga. Her poetry and essays are available or forthcoming in Briarpatch, The Puritan, Brick and Arc Poetry Magazine. She loves daisies.
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About the Authors
Susan Haldane lives on a farm near the northern boundary of Algonquin Park. Her chapbook Picking Stones is published by Gaspereau Press. Her work has appeared in a number of Canadian journals, in the anthology Desperately Seeking Susans (Oolichan 2012), and in Best Canadian Poetry 2020. In 2019 she was thrilled to win the Magpie Award for her poem A Short History of Space Travel.
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About the Authors
Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton. A member of the Métis Nation of Alberta, he is descended from the Lac Ste. Anne Metis and the Papaschase Cree Nation. His Ukrainian family are settlers in Treaty 4 and 6 territories in Saskatchewan. He grew up in Saskatoon, Edmonton and other prairie towns and cities. In 2022, he was named one of CBC’s Writers to Watch. He is the author of the poetry collections An Explosion of Feathers and Old Gods, as well as the novel Avenue of Champions, which was shortlisted for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize and won the 2022 ReLIT award. Conor is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alberta where he teaches creative writing.
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About the Authors
Alycia Pirmohamed is the author of the chapbooks Faces That Fled The Wind and Hinge. Her awards include the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, the CBC Poetry Prize, the Sawti Poetry Prize in English, the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest and the Ploughshares’ Emerging Writer’s Contest in Poetry. Her work has recently appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Paris Review Daily, Guernica Magazine, Poetry London Magazine and others. Alycia received her MFA from the University of Oregon, and her PhD from the University of Edinburgh.
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