Praise for Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us

“One of the strangest, most unique and more brilliant poetry debuts in Canadian history.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us reads like a Tim Burton-directed, uncanny valley version of a beloved children’s book…grim, gripping, and more than a little creepy. [It] is a trippy philosophical exploration [and] a delicious celebration of loss, vertigo, and wonder.” —Lit Hub

“[Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us] is a punk nightmare, a sharp intake of the lungs, an often unsettling and always weird meditation on realness. … Wareness eschews lilt, lyric, and love, rejects all conventions of poetic tone, and really just does whatever-the-salty-language he wants. A middle-fingered debut from a poet who scores his poems for the breath of snarling dogs and musings talking rabbits.” —Contemporary Verse 2

“Noah Wareness is cavalier, candid and so damned sharp that there’s a genuine fear of cutting yourself on his wit.” —Today Poetry

“Unsettling and also warm-hearted, insidiously serious, and astutely fun.”—Canadian Literature

“I am so damn thrilled to have helped this come about because I feel like I have been one of the few keepers of an explosive secret for the past decade … Real is the Word They Use to Contain Us is not merely a brilliantly heterogeneous gathering of poems, but an ambitious concept album, a hybrid work of punk philosophy showcasing its author’s eccentrically original mind and wacky humour … Reading this book will make you see the world a little differently.” —Zach Wells