The 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award goes to…
Ekke by Klara du Plessis (Palimpsest Press) 

From the publisher: Multilingually inflected, Klara du Plessis’ first collection of poetry explores the multiplicity of self through language, occupying a liminal space between South Africa and Canada. A sequence of visceral, essay-like long poems, du Plessis’ writing straddles the lyrical and intellectual, traversing landscapes and fine arts canvases. Ekke is a watershed debut from one of Canada’s most exciting young voices. 

 

From the jurors: An intelligent book constructed of long poems, Ekke reflects on the strange vagrancy of meaning and slippage of sounds between different languages. Both politically conscious and aesthetically beautiful, Ekke reads like a combination of the best parts of Lisa Robertson and M. Travis Lane: brainy and beautiful meditation with a beating lyric heart. 

 

Click here to read an excerpt from “Someone Other Than Else” from Ekke and here to order a copy of the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award-winning title from Palimpsest Press. 

  

Klara du Plessis is a poet residing in Montreal. Her debut collection, Ekke, was released from Palimpsest Press in 2018; and her chapbook, Wax Lyrical—shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award—was published by Anstruther Press in 2015. Klara is the editor for carte blanche magazine, a PhD English Literature student at Concordia University, and currently expanding her curatorial practice to include experimental Deep Curation poetry reading events. Follow her @ToMakePoesis. 

Congratulations, Klara!  

To see the 2019 Book Awards shortlists, click here. 
Thank you to our 2019 jury: Robert Colman, Brenda Leifso, and Shane Neilson.