"These poems are moving sublunary folk tales, a contemporary oral tradition of grief and wonder, surprise and bemused celebration. They speak of memory, the steadfast alchemy of self-awareness, of naming, of weaving a cloth of relations with the world and those one loves. They have the steady and certain strength of craft and curiosity. Life as we experience it is beautiful and strange, a painful and tender paradox. These are poems that see. We are seen." Gary Barwin, author of The Comedian’s Book of the Dead

"In Sublunary, themes in Richter’s previous work, like memory, grief, and absence, re-emerge—this time woven in with references to mythology and Jewish folklore. Always present: the struggles of holding life’s strangeness alongside its joyful and bewildering elements." Jonathan Rothman, Canadian Jewish News, December 2025

“In Sublunary, a collection as elegant as it is insightful, Richter answers the question, ‘What rhymes with crow’s feet, / girl’s grit, owl’s flight, crone’s teeth?' A hard-won wisdom resounds through these bespoke lyric poems that glitter like crystal trees, nourished by roots of blood. While holding space to elegize what has been taken and lost, Richter never succumbs to easy bitterness, but remains open to wonder—‘passionately attached to the world' and all ‘its peculiar mouthfeel.'’’ Kayla Czaga, author of Midway

In Sublunary, Lisa Richter explores what it’s like to live “under the moon” in a world that is simultaneously a heartbreak and a total wonder. Sweetmeats and ocelots rain from the sky. Pets are shadow puppets. A kitten impersonates a teacup. A grieving daughter travels back in time to be at her father’s side in the final hours of his life. Newlyweds soar over the rooftops of west-end Toronto, passing a violin-playing goat along the way. From Atlantis to Mount Olympus to Christie Pits, these poems interweave moments of absurdity and awe, creating a nuanced portrait of what “a reckless intimacy with the world” might look like—for better or worse. Sublunary is a book of elegy, play, and rupture that advocates for an ethics of care, solidarity, and compassion for our perfectly imperfect selves and each other: a mode of survival that is full-throated and, at times, even joyous.
Les mer
Sublunary navigates the otherworldly geographies of complicated grief, renewal, climate emergency, love, and survival, interweaving dreamlike surrealism, humour, and compassion.
Staying Power I. False Awakening Frog Rain Crashing the Floodgates Tabula Rasa Flotsam and Jetsam The Thrill of the Find Blood Concordance Equinox in the Crystal Forest A Portrait Made of Seaweed I’m Not Being Hard on Myself, You’re Being Hard on Yourself Onism for Beginners If You’re Anything Like Me At the Oracle of Delphi Be Someone Who Would Have Been Burned at the Stake 500 Years Ago Aesthetics II. Marc Chagall Missed Flight Lower Soul Days of Awe Reading Zagajewski Three Years, Two Months and Twelve Days After My Father Dies Overseas Mountain Concordance Communiqué from the Fortunate Islands Epithalamium Loss Isn’t so Important Moon Phasery Ghazal with Malbec, No Cigarettes The Pomegranate Year Spring Poem Ending with a Line from Roo Borson Ulcerative Colitis Remission Conditional Winter Solstice Unboxing Day Self-Portrait as Demolished Supermarket Hauntological Artifact Inventory Disassembly Line III. Whatever It Takes The Fish Trees Communiqué from Atlantis Bloordale Elegy/li> Yes, and Against “The Road Not Taken” Modern Miracles How the Moon Invents Memory Cloud Concordance Still, Life Anabasis If You Dwell on a Grave While Out of Breath Sea Grief Marriage Tales Minor Worries Today the Universe Can Be Viewed by Members Only Marvelosity Hermit Aria Living Will Between Falling to Earth and Floating in Space Sublunary Notes Acknowledgments
Les mer
Sublunary navigates the otherworldly geographies of complicated grief, renewal, climate emergency, love, and survival, interweaving dreamlike surrealism, humour, and compassion.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781772128543
Publisert
2026-03-10
Utgiver
University of Alberta Press
Vekt
120 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Dybde
6 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
88

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Lisa Richter is an award-winning poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Closer to Where We Began and Nautilus and Bone, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry (US), and the Robert Kroetsch Award, among other honours. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, named a finalist for a National Magazine Award, and has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry 2024, Plenitude, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and makes her home in Tkaronto/Toronto, where she is currently working on a hybrid-genre memoir.