Leah Horlick grew up as a settler on Treaty Six Cree territory and the homelands of the Métis in Saskatchewan. Her first collection of poetry, Riot Lung (Thistledown Press, 2012) was shortlisted for both a ReLit Award and a Saskatchewan Book Award. In 2016 she won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize, Canada’s only award for LGBT emerging writers. That same year, her second collection, For Your Own Good (Caitlin Press, 2015), was named Stonewall Honor Title by the American Library Association. In 2018, her piece “You Are My Hiding Place” was named Poem of the Year by ARC Poetry Magazine and shortlisted for inclusion in the 44th Pushcart Prize by the Pushcart Board of Editors. She lives in Calgary.
Leah Horlick's Moldovan Hotel (Brick Books) explores the intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust in Romania through a queer Jewish voice in the Diaspora. Below we share two poems from her collection!
Named a 2021 Rising Star by the Writers' Trust of Canada, Eddy Boudel Tan is today's All Lit Up Gift Guide recommender sharing five thoughtful must-read picks for "the dreamer who imagines what might be possible if only society would collapse" to "anyone who’s ever felt victimized ... Read more
We welcome Leah Horlick to our Poetry Express series with her collection Moldovan Hotel (Brick Books), in which she explores the complicated history behind the displacement of her Jewish ancestors, and the intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust that extends itself through ... Read more
BEST OF THE BLOG 2021
This National Poetry Month on All Lit Up we bring you Poetry Express, a month-long series dedicated to poetry as a mode of travel—anywhere, anytime. In a year of isolation, poetry, more than ever, is connection, expression, and reflection. Poetry takes ... Read more
Content warning: mention of suicide attempt, death of a family member, grief
Andrea Actis's Grey All Over (Brick Books) is an autoconceptual study of traumatic grief, white working-class identity, false prophets, and whole seriousness. In her compelling debut, Andrea assembles ... Read more
This month on All Lit Up, we're putting a spotlight on books by and about women and the people behind them. Today's publisher in profile is Brick Books, a fiercely independent poetry press now owned exclusively by women, that offers beautifully designed poetry books by established ... Read more
In her third collection of poetry Moldovan Hotel, Leah Horlick invites readers to consider the intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust in Romania and to explore what we think we understand about genocide and displacement. Read on for more about the collection and to ... Read more
While other parts of the world officially observe Women's History Month, we're joining in to celebrate amazing women in Canada and beyond.
This month, we're putting a spotlight on books by and about women and the people behind them. First up is BC-based Caitlin Press, a fiercely ... Read more
Today's poetry cure speaks to trauma, sexual assault, and healing with Joelle Barron's Ritual Lights (Goose Lane Editions), a collection full of vulnerability, humour, and rage. As Joelle tells us below, "It’s a story of many losses that lead to the ultimate triumph of ... Read more
Today's Poetry Cure features Mallory Tater's This Will Be Good (Book*hug), a collection of lyric poems that explore a young woman's developing femininity and an emerging eating disorder. Scroll down for our chat with Mallory about her debut book, self-care, and potato puns, ... Read more
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