icehouse & friends presents: Qurat Dar, Shane Neilson, and Shannon Arntfield

Name: icehouse & friends presents: Qurat Dar, Shane Neilson, and Shannon Arntfield
Start: 2025-09-25T19:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-09-25T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Flying Books

Schedule

Thu Sep 25 2025 at 07:30 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Flying Books | Toronto, ON

Join us at Flying Books for the launch of Non-Prophet by Qurat Dar and The Reign by Shane Neilson with friend Shannon Arntfield (Python Love). The poets will be in discussion with poet and editor Jim Johnstone. A signing will follow their discussion.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
Non-Prophet is the Winner of the inaugural Claire Harris Poetry Prize. Qurat Dar’s bold debut collection explores what it is to grapple with faith that’s “just another language you’re losing or one you never learned to speak.” Weaving through the boundaries of language and form Non-Prophet meditates on things “just mundane enough to be holy / just holy enough to be mundane” — the death of a bird the cries of mid-nightmare prayers the misplaced shame of what it is to bleed. Dar’s poems both rage and reconcile holding gently the pieces of a fractured identity.
The Reign by Shane Neilson is the swirling ever-shifting story of a land that endures industrialism and a love that refuses subordination. From lyrics to prose images to echolalia this unforgettable myth drifts effortlessly through a wide range of forms and registers to deliver a breathtaking unparalleled tale.
Python Love by Shannon Arntfield weaves together experiences of childhood abuse birth trauma and recovery from the perspective of a medical doctor who is also a mother. In her debut collection Shannon Arntfield delves into the many ways in which the body recalls what has been done to it. Long breathtaking sequences set within medical facilities during labour and delivery are juxtaposed with spare lyrical reflections on ideas of memory natural spaces implicit love and the relationships between parents and children. Full of precise observations careful renderings and visceral originality Python Love is focused on how the body and mind are inextricably linked how the past can overwhelm and inform the present and how recovery is tied to love and connection.