Multitudes

By (author): Margaret Christakos

Poet Margaret Christakos, throughout her eight previous poetry collections, has created ruptures and splices inside of and against the limits of the confessional lyric, often using recombinatory procedures, cyclical and serial structure, and enmeshing intimate vernacular with highly aestheticized language in writing that explores maternality, sexuality and intimate address.

In her new collection, Multitudes –Â?Â? where cellphone tweets snipe ‘y wd I nd/ 2 spk 2 u?’ alongside echoes of aria, chant and dirge –Â?Â? Christakos freshly pairs Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’ with an inquiry into the subjective thresholds of digital social media, where individuals conduct flamboyant acts of self-Â?portraiture, testimonial, self-Â?commodification, erotic selfÂ?-dispersal and indelible spectacle.

Multitudes is a moving, witty, poetic foray into a modern frontier of public spaces (city hall square, park, cemetery, bicycle path), poetic forms, private longings and virtual relocations. With her trademark linguistic sonar, Christakos amplifies the capacity of language to discern an almost inherent swingdoor between ‘moaning’ and ‘meaning,’ while casting a discouraged eye on how human discernment is used to rigidify recognitions, inviting citizens to turn from ethical social activism to snitch on their Facebook friends after an urban hockey riot.

‘Alphabetic dismantling, syntactic play, essaying words backwards and 4words (as she might say), Christakos manifests forensic clarity and telegraphic fortitude in this unsettling work.’ Â?– Rachel Blau DuPlessis

AUTHOR

Margaret Christakos

MARGARET CHRISTAKOS is a widely published award-winning poet, fiction author, critic, and creative writing instructor. Her work includes the afterword for the Le Grand Prix du livre de Montréal 2021 finalist, Permanent Revolutions, and the essay collection, Her Paraphernalia: On Motherlines, Sex, Blood, Loss & Selfies. Her work has won the ReLit Award for Poetry and the Bliss Carman Award, has been nominated for the Pat Lowther Award, and was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. She was appointed Canada Council Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor in 2004–2005, served as Canada Council Writer in Residence at Western University in 2016–2017 and at the University of Alberta in 2017–2018, and as Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at University of Toronto (2018–2019).


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Details

Dimensions:

128 Pages
8.75in * 5.75in * 0.3in
0.55lb

Published:

September 20, 2013

Publisher:

Coach House Books

ISBN:

9781552452790

Book Subjects:

POETRY / Canadian

Featured In:

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Language:

eng

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