On Occasion

A twenty-first-century reconsideration of the occasional poem by contemporary writers.

On Occasion is a collection rooted in the tradition of the poem as an act of love, an act of protest, an act of visionary incantation, of remembrance, of a call to arms, and a much-needed balm.

The traditional ‘occasional poem’ has a bad rap: a tedious rhyming poem at a wedding or a dreary verse at a funeral. This is not that. These are poems for a tumultuous and complicated world, for occasions that may be celebrations or mournings, or anything in between; from life cycles, to earth cycles, to social cycles, editor Sina Queyras brings together a collection of poetry that speaks to moments of upheaval, revolution, and challenge. Poetry that people can turn to.

On Occasion contains over a hundred poems for different occasions, including writing by Suzanne Buffam, Heather Christle, CAConrad, Sue Goyette, Canisia Lubrin, bpNichol, Michael Ondaatje, Lisa Robertson, Sue Sinclair, and A. E. Stallings.

AUTHOR

Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras is the author most recently of the poetry collections Lemon Hound and Expressway both from Coach House Books. She is also working on a novel titled, Autobiography of Childhood, which an excerpt from appeared in translation in Siecle 21 out of Paris. She has lived across Canada, in New Jersey, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. Currently she lives in Montreal where she teaches and keeps a blog, Lemon Hound.

Reviews

Part of Quill & Quire’s Spring Poetry Preview

Praise for the author:

‘Like the central conceptual apparatus, Queyras is smart and insightful in their work to expand and challenge the nature of language and poetry … Lend Queyras your ears, your minds, your hearts, your Time. They will reward you, repeatedly.’ – The Rumpus on MxT

‘A collection of gorgeous and cantankerous poems that ask testy questions of all contemporary poets,and for this, the book is a must-read.’ – Globe and Mail on MxT

‘This year’s most devastating and enlightening Canadian poetry collection.’ – Telegraph-Journal on MxT

‘Using Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own as a touchstone text, this book blends memoir, poetry and criticism to offer a glimpse into the formative spaces that Queyras navigated on the way to life as a queer writer in the public eye.’ – The New York Times on Rooms: Women, Writing, Woolf

‘Queyras’ Rooms suggests that, in a world where creative expression is mediated by material constraints, what many writers are actually after is the right amount of noise and silence, care without confinement: “somewhere between retreat and community, there is space.”’ – Aishwarya Singh, Montreal Review of Books