22 Canadian poetry books to read to celebrate National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month! Celebrate by reading some great Canadian poetry.

• Calling all poets! The 2020 CBC Poetry Prize is open for submissions

For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to BreathebyGary Barwin

For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathebrings together new and old work from acclaimed poet Gary Barwin. An inventive writer, Barwin showcases his range, playfulness and originality from the course of his 35-year career in this new book.

• Why Gary Barwin thinks everyone is a writer

Barwin is the author of several poetry collections and one novel. His novel,Yiddish for Pirates,won the 2017 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

The Next Chapter11:28Lorna Crozier on The House the Spirit Builds

The poet Lorna Crozier on The House the Spirit Builds, a collection of poems in response to photos by Diane Laundy and Peter Coffman, taken in the Frontenac Arch Biosphere in Southwestern Ontario.

NDN Coping MechanismsbyBilly-Ray Belcourt

InNDN Coping Mechanisms,Billy-Ray Belcourtuses poetry, prose and textual art to explore how Indigenous and queer communities and identities are left out of mainstream media. The work has two parts the first explores everyday lifeand the second explores influential texts such as Treaty 8.

• Billy-Ray Belcourt on writing an 'instruction manual for a queer Indigenous future'

Belcourtisa writer and academic from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the Griffin Poetry Prize for his first poetry collection,This Wound is a World.CBC Booksnamed Belcourta writer to watch in 2018.

The Next Chapter3:49David Leonard on Not One of These Poems Is About You

David Leonard on Teva Harrison's posthumous poetry collection, Not One of These Poems Is About You.

The Gospel of Breakingby Jillian Christmas

The Gospel of Breakingdraws onJillian Christmas's politics, family history and queer lineage, telling stories of love lost, friendship and community.

• Six GTA poets share how they're coping with physical distancing

Christmas is aneducator, activist and community organizer who focuses on increasinganti-oppression initiatives in spoken word.She is the former Artistic Director of Vancouver's Verses Festival of Words.

The House the Spirit BuildsbyLorna Crozier, photography by Peter Coffman &Diane Laundy

The House the Spirit Buildsis a collection of poetry inspired by nature from acclaimed poet Lorna Crozier. Crozier was inspired by the Frontenac Arch biosphere reserve in Southeastern Ontario, one of 18 biosphere reserves in Canada. Crozier's poems in this gift-book style collection are accompanied by photos by Peter Coffman and Diane Laundy.

• Why Lorna Crozier wants us to remember that we are all connected

Crozier is a Governor General's Literary Award-winning poet who has written more than 15 books.

My Art Is Killing Meby Amber Dawn

In her second poetry collection,My Art Is Killing Me,Amber Dawn contemplates the ways in which artists can suffer at the hands of their work. Thepoems offer insight into her own success as a sex-worker-turned-writer and explore what it meanswhen one'straumais directly related to their art.

Amber Dawn is a Vancouver-based writer and editor. She won the Writers' Trust of Canada's Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers in 2012. Her debut novel,Sub Rosa,won aLambda Literary Award and 2013 memoirHow Poetry Saved My Lifewon the Vancouver Book Award. She is also the author of the novelSodom Road Exitand the poetry collectionWhere the Words End and My Body Begins.

The Next Chapter15:55Thomas King on 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin

Thomas King, the award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, turns his hand to poetry in his latest book, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin,

All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Beenby JoeFiorito

All I Have Learned Is Where I Have Beendraws on Joe Fiorito's nearly two decades of experience as a newspaper columnist covering daily life in Toronto. Examining addiction, incarceration, homelessness and more, this collection is filled with harsh realities and exacting details.

Fiorito is the author of eight books. He has won the Brassani Prize for Short Fiction in 2000 and the City of Toronto Book Award in 2003.City Poems, his first book of poetry, was published in 2018.

The Next Chapter16:52Nancy Lee on What Hurts Going Down

Vancouver writer Nancy Lee on her debut poetry collection What Hurts Going Down.

How She ReadbyChantal Gibson

Chantal Gibson'sHow She Readis a collection of genre-blurring poems about the representation of black women in Canada.The Vancouver-based Gibson has East Coast roots and she brings a holistic, decolonized approach to challenging imperialist ideas by way of a close look at Canadian literature, history, art, media and pop culture.

How She Read is a finalist for the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize.

• Chantal Gibson on decolonizing minds through poetry

Gibson is an artist, poet and educator who currently teaches at Simon Fraser University.CBC Booksnamed Gibsonablack Canadian writerto watch in 2019.How She Readis her first poetry collection.

Not One of These Poems Is About Youby Teva Harrison

InNot One of These Poems Is About You, Teva Harrison ponders what it means to live withmetastatic breast cancer. From preparing to lose her husband to how the disease has influenced her identity, Harrison's poemsexplore life, love and death with striking honesty.

• Teva Harrison: How I wrote about my incurable cancer

Harrisonwas anaward-winning cartoonist known for her poignant comics about living with an incurable illness.Her 2016 graphic novelIn-Between Dayswon theKobo Emerging Writer Prize for Non-Fictionand was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction. Shedied on April 27, 2019at the age of 42.

The Sunday Edition15:28Reading in isolation

This new age of social distancing and isolation is good for one thing: Reading. And reading is a good way to form or enhance something so many of us crave when isolated: Connection and community. Online book clubs have sprouted up as people contemplate how to spend their days apart from friends and family and their usual distractions. We asked some lovers of literature Toronto poet laureate A. F. Moritz, literature professor Rohan Maitzen, graduate student Ariel Leutheusser, novelist Sharon Bala and award-winning non-fiction writer Robert Macfarlane what they're reading during our springtime of isolation and unease.

HeftbyDoyali Islam

Heftis a conceptual look at rupture and resilience in today's world. The poems look at the nature of illness, painand sexuality.Heftcasts its lens on normal female sexual experience and the notion of home in light of chronic pain and suspected autoimmune illness on a personal level.

Heft is a finalist for the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize.

• Why Doyali Islam believes poetry and the physical body are connected

Islam is the editor of Arc Poetry Magazine and the author of two poetry collections. Her other poetry collection isYusuf and the Lotus Flower.CBC Booksnamed Islama writer to watch in 2019.

CBC Books4:25Alessandra Naccarato recites Postcards for my Sister

Alessandra Naccarato reads her submission to the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize.

Magnetic EquatorbyKaie Kellough

Kaie Kellough plays with geography and self-determination inMagnetic Equator, his third poetry collection. Drifting between South and North America, Kellough digs into ancestral belonging, exploring the Canadian Prairies, Georgetown, Guyana, the Amazon rainforestand the Atlantic Ocean. It looks at the nature of language and dialect in the works of Caribbean and Canadian writers, seeking origin, identity and understanding.

Magnetic Equatoris a finalist for the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize.

• The album title that inspired Kaie Kellough to become a writer

Kellough is a Montreal-based artist and poet. He is also the author of the novelAccordon,which was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

77 Fragments of a Familiar RuinbyThomas King

In 2020, celebrated Indigenous writer Thomas King will turn 77 years old. His first poetry collection,77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin,collects 77 poems that lament what we have lost, lecture us for what we have allowed and looks at what we might still be able to save.

• Read excerpts from Thomas King's first poetry collection,77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin

King's books includeTruth & Bright Water,The Inconvenient IndianandThe Back of the Turtle. He also writes the DreadfulWater mystery series.

Sonnet's Shakespeareby Sonnet L'Abb

InSonnet's Shakespeare,SonnetL'Abb takes the work of William Shakespeare and inserts herself a mixed race South Asian and black Canadian poet. The end result is 154 sonnets that L'Abb has dismantled letter by letter and rearranged to analyze Shakespeare's influential voice and how we can make space for others.

• Nanaimo poet and professor writes over Shakespeare in new book

L'Abbis based in British Columbia. Shewon thebpNichol Chapbook Award in 2017 forAnima Canadensis.

Mad Long EmotionbyBen Ladouceur

The poems inMad Long Emotionlook at the nature of loveand loving for humans, flora and fauna alike.Mad Long Emotioncreatively gazesat the interplay between species and the host of universal connections within the natural world.

Ladouceur'sprevious poetry collection,Otter, won the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for best debut collection. In 2018, he wontheDayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ emerging writers.CBC Booksnamed Ladouceura writer to watch in 2019.

What Hurts Going Downby Nancy Lee

In this collection, Nancy Lee confrontshowpowerdynamics andsocially ingrained violencecontinues to inform what it means to be female.What Hurts Going Downis an exploration of girlhoodin the pre and post #MeToo eras.

• Nancy Lee looks at what it means to be a woman in her poetry collection What Hurts Going Down

Lee's first book,Dead Girls,wonthe 2003VanCity Book Prize for best book pertaining to women's issues. She is also the author of the novelThe Age.

The Dyzgraphxstby Canisia Lubrin

The Dyzgraphxstis set against the backdrop of contemporary capitalist fascism, nationalism and the climate disaster, where Jejune, the central figure,grapples with understandingtheir existence and identity.

• Why poet Canisia Lubrinembraces chaos

Canisia Lubrinis a writer, editor and teacher. Her debut poetry collectionVoodoo Hypothesiswas longlisted for the Gerald Lambert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award.

Field Notes for the Selfby Randy Lundy

Field Notes for the Selfis a series that takes inspiration from the poetic structuring of Patrick Lane, John Thompsonand Charles Wright, but their closest cousins may be Arvo Prt's.This collection deals with the idea of liberation from personal and inherited trauma and memories of violence inflictedon Lundy'sIndigenous ancestors which continue to haunt him. Similar to Randy Lundy'spast works, this collection is rooted in observations of the natural world.

• How Randy Lundy's latest poetry collection reveals why the dark times make life beautiful

Lundy is a Saskatchewan-based short story writer and award-winning poet. He has published three previous books,Under the Night Sun,Gift of the HawkandBlackbird Song, which won theSaskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award in 2019.

Hope MattersbyLee Maracle, ColumpaBobb & Tania Carter

Hope Matters,a collection of poetry fromaward-winning authorLeeMaracleand her daughtersColumpaBobbandTaniaCarter, looks atthe journey of Indigenous people from colonial beginnings to reconciliation. The collaborative effort documents the personal mother-daughter connection and also the shared song ofhope and reconciliation from all Indigenous communities and perspectives.

• Lee Maracle stormed CanLit stages to make sure her story was heard

Maracle is one of Canada's most acclaimed writers. Her books includeBobbi Lee:Indian Rebel,I Am Woman,My Conversations with CanadiansandRavensong.Bobb is a photographer, actor, playwright and poet. Carteris an actor, playwright and poet.

As Far As You Knowby A. F. Moritz

As Far As You Knowis divided into six sections,each dealing with a different concept, from terrorism to friendship. This collection dives deep into the poet's mind revealing his ongoing obsessions withbeauty, impermanence, social conscience, responsibility and love.

A. F. Moritz is the author of 20 poetry collections. He has won the Griffin Poetry Prize, the BessHokin Prize and an awardin literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.He is currently the sixth poet laureate of the City of Toronto.

Re-Origin of SpeciesbyAlessandra Naccarato

InRe-Origin of Species,Alessandra Naccarato explores her own family history: one that moves from southern Italy to Northern Ontario and includes poverty and addiction. Through it, she weaves an exploration of the natural world and our relationship to it.

• How Alessandra Naccarato wrote the poem that won the CBC Poetry Prize

Naccaratowon the 2017 CBC Poetry Prize.Re-Origin of Speciesis her first book. It featuresPostcards for My Sister, herCBC Poetry Prize-winning poem.

Washes, Praysby Noor Naga

Washes, Praysfollows Coocoo, a young immigrant woman living in Toronto who begins to question her faith after falling in love with Muhammad, a married father of two. Coocoo wonders how she can reconcile her faith with her actions and whether her relationship withMuhammad can really last.

Noor Nagais aCanadian-Egyptian writer.She won the 2017 Bronwen Wallace Awardfor her poemThe Mistress and the Ping.She also wonthe Disquiet Fiction Prize in 2019.Her debut novelAmerican Girl and Boy from Shobrakheitis forthcomingfall 2021.

Burning Provinceby Michael Prior

Burning Province, Michael Prior's second collection, is set amid the wildfires that moved through British Columbia from 2015 to 2017. The poems dealwith generational trauma, grief, love and inheritance, while moving between physical and psychological landscapes.

Prior is writer, poet and teacher. His poems have appeared in many publications across North America and the U.K., includingThe Next Wave: An Anthology of 21st Century Canadian Poetry. Prior's poetry explores his Japanese-Canadian identity and the impacts of the Japanese internment upon his family legacy.

These are not the potatoes of my youthby Matthew Walsh

These are not the potatoes of my youthis a look at growing up on the East Coast and heading west on a nomadic journey. Speckled withMaritime vernacular, Walsh's poems delve into the nature of queer identity, family structure and self-determination using elements of humour, surprise and frankness.

These are not the potatoes of my youthis Walsh's first book.CBC Booksnamed Walsha writer to watch in 2019.