Canisia Lubrin and Billy-Ray Belcourt: Poetry in the 21st Century

Join two of the brightest talents in Canadian poetry, Canisia Lubrin and Billy-Ray Belcourt, as they discuss their new collections with award-winning novelist David Chariandy.

In The World After Rain, Griffin Poetry Prize-winner Canisia Lubrin delivers an elegy for her mother ("Anne's Poem" is the collection's subtitle), an elegy that expands to take in the paradoxes and entanglements of 21st-century life. With The Idea of an Entire Life, fellow Griffin Prize-winner Billy-Ray Belcourt returns with a formally diverse collection—sonnets alongside fieldnotes, lyrics, and fragments—exploring love, queerness, and political possibility. Both collections emerge from a state of grief, but are suffused with transcendent sensations—what Lubrin calls "astonishment" and Belcourt calls "awe"—suggesting the myriad of reactions to the bewilderments of 21st-century life. These poets are on the frontlines of their art, and their new collections establish them as major figures in their forms.

In conversation with novelist David Chariandy (Brother, Soucouyant), Lubrin and Belcourt will probe to the inner recesses of 21st-century reality, and discuss how poetry can respond to and illuminate its protean nature.

Featured books:

by Canisia Lubrin

by Billy-Ray Belcourt

About this event's guests:

Canisia Lubrin's books include Voodoo Hypothesis and The Dyzgraphxst. Lubrin’s work has been recognized with the Griffin Poetry Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, the Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Stars prize, and others. Born in St. Lucia, Lubrin now lives in Whitby, Ontario, and is the poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart.

Billy-Ray Belcourt is from the Driftpile Cree Nation in northwest Alberta. He won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection This Wound is a World. He has twice been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award—once in poetry for the debut and in non-fiction for his memoir, A History of My Brief Body. Both his works of fiction, A Minor Chorus and Coexistence, were national bestsellers. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Read more:

PLAN YOUR VISIT:

Location: Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street), 2nd floor

Time: Doors open 6:00pm, Event starts 7:00pm.

Tickets: Free registration required.

Ticket policy: We oversell these events to make sure that the greatest number of people have an opportunity to attend. Tickets are guaranteed until 6:45pm or until capacity is reached. Any remaining space will be opened up to the rush line beginning at 6:45pm. Seating first come, first served. Tickets do not guarantee seats.

Bar: Beer/wine available for purchase (debit/credit only).

Accessibility: TPL is committed to accessibility. If you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation for this event, please contact [email protected] or 416-393-7099 at least three weeks prior to the event.

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This event is part of our signature Salon Series, where we host local and international authors, artists and thinkers in conversation about their new books and big ideas.

Info: Come early so you can chat with your fellow literature lovers, and make new friends. We'll have a bar with a selection of beer and wine, as well as snacks, available to purchase.

Info: Canisia Lubrin and Billy-Ray Belcourt sign copies of their books. Books are available for purchase at the event from a local bookseller.

Host or Publisher Toronto Public Library