What does JOY mean to you?

The theme of National Poetry Month 2023 was JOY.

Joy is realizing you are more than what’s happened to you. That you are also potentiality, possibility, futurity. A shifting of consciousness; a will to transform, or at least reconsider the contours of what a thing is and can be. I find the greatest joy in the act of writing itself, when I report on the world as it appears to me, taking into account not only what is but what else might be. What beauty I might be missing. Striving towards those beautiful parts.
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem (Book*hug Press) – 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

So many things. These three come immediately to mind: A child immersed in a book. Seeing someone after a long time of missing. Deep-fried ice cream.
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

As a poet, there is so much joy in community. Joy becomes a vital sustaining force that connects us after we separate. It’s that thing that brings us together and keeps us looking forward to the next event, reading, or workshop. I really cherish those moments where we come together, and keep each other safe while doing so. I know that the pandemic has been long and challenging, but I feel a lot of joy when I see people coming to events with masks and keeping spaces accessible.
Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner

We asked our longlisters and shortlisters the same question! Read their responses.

What is a poem you turn to for comfort or joy?

Derek Walcott’s “Love After Love.”
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem (Book*hug Press) – 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

I have a well-loved collection of poems by e. e. cummings. I usually flip to a page at random and delight in his language. Let’s try that now … Poem 42: “here’s to opening and upwards,to leaf and to sap.”
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

I love spoken word performances. Listening to poems by people like Titilope Sonuga or Hanif Abdurraqib, always make me feel so full of life and those big emotions can bring a lot of comfort and joy.
Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner

How did your poetry collection come to be?

The project started with the title essay, “Quiet Night Think.” I was asked to write about writing, and I found myself thinking back to a childhood encounter with Li Bai’s poem. My learning his poem brought forth a number of issues that I didn’t realize would shape so much of my creative practice and concerns: multilingualism, translation, cultural difference, and family history.

A year later, I became a mother and suddenly my relationship to writing changed. Becoming a mother—becoming a biological point of origin for someone else—made me reflect on my own origins, both creative and familial. To be at the beginning of something forced me to interrogate my own beginnings. I don’t think this book could’ve happened without my becoming a parent and undergoing that evolution.
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

This collection was a real exercise in different senses of scale. Some days were big picture conceptual days, or days trying to figure out what the overall shape of the collection would end up being. But other days, many days, were spent over tiny visual details in the layout, alignment, and composition. I think focusing on those mechanical details made the work a little easier sometimes though. The research came with quite a lot of emotional and spiritual cost. But I’m grateful that I had so much support from community and friends and loved ones. It was a real team effort, especially help from my partner Nisha. Coach House Books was also extremely patient with my many emails about everything from the book’s trim size to the typefaces.
Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner

What projects are you currently working on or would like to shout out?

I wrote another poem for children and it’s out now as a board book. When Sunlight Tiptoes is gorgeously illustrated by Soyeon Kim and is published by Orca Book.
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

The Amadeus Choir of Toronto where I’m a 2023 resident of the Choral Creation Lab!
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem (Book*hug Press) – 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

How did you choose the title of your collection?

Vox Humana (Latin for “human voice”) is driven by a sense of political urgency to probe the ethics of agency in a world that actively resists the participation of some voices over others. The title also represents an organ reed that sounds like the human voice. Reclaiming the instrument traditionally accessed by the white establishment, and using literary experiments with word/sound/utterance/song, Vox Humana considers the different ways a body can assert, recount, proclaim. The infinite variety of the human voice, in states both free and under siege.
Also, I just can’t get enough etymology! I love to pull language apart, and want to share this joy with my readers: of not merely absorbing words but questioning every root, every process by which a term becomes an agreed-upon artifact of a language, becomes meaningful. Each title in Latin brings its own storyline, layer of interpretation, mode by which the active reader can engage simultaneously as an active listener. The fact that some poems can be read in more than one way also contributes to the idea of the reader as active participant in the story being told. I’ve heard people say: “listening is an art.” But I think it’s more than that, that listening is a critical responsibility. Paying attention means being open—to having one’s perspective(s) change, to being changed. And hopefully through this process, become attuned to the ways in which history need not be repeated.
Adebe DeRango-Adem
Vox Humana by Adebe DeRango-Adem (Book*hug Press) – 2023 Raymond Souster Award Winner

The title of the book comes from the title of Li Bai’s poem, 靜夜思 [Jìng Yè Sī]. The three characters translate directly to “Quiet Night Think.”
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

That was Nisha [Patel] actually. The titular poem used to be one long piece spread over a few pages. But Nisha pointed to it and suggested I split it up and focus on it. Whitemud creek wends and bends back and forth through the book and it became the frame the rest of the book was built around. The original title was a lot worse, so I’m really grateful for Nisha’s help with that one!
Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner

What would you recommend for people who are looking to engage more with poetry and arts in Canada?

Visit your local library! Ask the librarian for recommendations.
Gillian Sze
Quiet Night Think by Gillian Sze (ECW Press) – 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award Winner

Go to poetry and arts events. Buy poetry and art from living writers and artists. Buy books from local independent bookshops. Donate to local arts organizations and festivals. These are all ways to help the people living in your communities and making your cities more vibrant and beautiful.
Matthew James Weigel
Whitemud Walking by Matthew James Weigel (Coach House Books) – 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Winner