Poetry in Motion: Carlie Blume + Gigglepuss

“Carlie Blume is a poet of nostalgia and bays, family and the moon. The speakers in her poems come of age in the “leftover air” of dead malls and pines, seeing what we would like not to see: violence and tenderness in the lives of girls and women.” Shazia Hafiz Ramji, author of Port of Being

Carlie Blume reads from Gigglepuss

Gigglepuss delves into a past pockmarked with loss, broken family dynamics, and the looming shadow of familial mental illness. These poems touch on sexual abuse, lost relationships, the influence of pop culture, and the intensity of motherhood set against the at times humorous backdrop of stark self-awareness, irony and even absurdity. Bucking against a patriarchal society, this collection is a provocative, reflective and at times confrontational portrayal of our human need for connection, self- identity and home. 

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Carlie Blume was born on the unceded and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (Vancouver). She is a 2017 graduate of Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio and her work has appeared in The Maynard, Train: a poetry journal, Ghost City Review and more. She currently lives on Salt Spring Island, B.C with her husband and two children. Gigglepuss is her debut collection.