BC Poetry 2017: "Prosopopoeia" by Shazia Hafiz Ramji (Anstruther Press)

See You Tomorrow

Tomorrow you’ll find me when you sign on.
You’ll send me a DM, ask me to drop you a pin.

I’ll say, “Hey! I’m here!” as if this here is enough,
as if the here is still now. You’ll ask me if I’m lost
and I’ll remember how far away you are from me.

But I’ve DM’d you once more to say
I saw the latest version of a human-size bot

that it walked with a limp
and I felt sad and sorry for it.

This is what she meant when she saw him
hanging from the ceiling and wanted to place a chair
beneath him, so that his knees don’t hurt when he falls.

Who?

Shazia Hafiz Ramji lives in Vancouver, BC where she edits books and writes poems, reviews, and stories. Her poetry was shortlisted for the 2016 National Magazine Awards and is forthcoming in Canadian Literature and filling Station. She is the incoming poetry editor for Prism international and was co-editor for the "Intersections" issue of Poetry is Dead. She has been a guide for Poor Yoricks' Summer and Sacred Jest, groups dedicated to reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.



What?

Prosopopoeia is a chapbook of poems that speak to the absent and the dead. These poems comprise the voices of screens talking to each other, the meanest employers, and the Internet under the ocean. Or, Prosopopoeia is a spectral chorus that strives for sincerity, particularly when addressing "you" and Philip Seymour Hoffman. This book should be enjoyed alone, in the light of a computer screen with the sound of "Rain - Gentle Rain Sounds - HD Sleep Sounds" on YouTube.


When?

Arrived February 2017.


Where?

Book Launches: Happened April 27th in Vancouver!

Purchases: From the Anstruther Press website. $10.


How?

Sincerely addressing Philip Seymour Hoffman w/ the voice of the Internet under the ocean.

Anstruther Press * About This Series * More Books, Please!

The copyrights of all poems included in the series remain with their authors, and are reprinted with the permission of the publishers.

BC Poetry 2017: "Good for Nothing" by Curtis LeBlanc (Anstruther Press)

An Outdoor Education

Lengths of rope meant for lean-tos, for securing 
the corners of a tarp to tree trunks
were used instead to hog-tie my beanpole body 
to a dried out birch during outdoor education class. 
Those other kids—friends of mine, I’d say still—
started with my shins and wound the whiskered 
yellow nylon cord around and around until I squirmed,
arms cinched to my side, papery white bark 
curling up the ass of my jeans. They doused 
my thighs in lighter fluid then traced the dark stain 
with the lick of a zippo flame until I became the first branch
catching on a pyre. But the butane burned 
clean through to cotton threads that did not catch. 
I was left with nothing but heat rash. 
You have been the only thing to ever change me.

Who?

Curtis LeBlanc was born and raised in St. Albert, AB. In 2016, his poetry won the Readers' Choice Award in the Arc Poem of The Year Contest and was shortlisted for The Walrus Poetry Prize as well as CV2's Young Buck Poetry Prize. Good for Nothing (Anstruther Press, 2017) is his first chapbook. His first book-length collection will be published by Nightwood Editions in Spring of 2018.


What?

A chapbook! But why blather on about the thing when we can give you another poem???

When?

Arrived January 2017.


Where?

Book Launches: Coming at the end of April or early May at The Paper Hound in Vancouver. Date TBA - Be Prepared For Anything!

Purchases: From the Anstruther Press website. $10.


How?

Non-obligatory ocean chat.

Anstruther Press * About This Series * More Books, Please!

The copyrights of all poems included in the series remain with their authors, and are reprinted with the permission of the publishers.