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Poetry in Motion: Kyle Flemmer + Supergiants

Publisher and poet Kyle Flemmer reads two poems from his new collection Supergiants (Wolsak & Wynn), which employs the technical language of astrophysics and engineering to examine what our exploration of the cosmos says about us.

The cover of Supergiants by Kyle Flemmer. A line drawing of a planet with an orbit is superimposed over the title, with a fuzzy, black and white photo negative of space in the background.

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Poetry in Motion

More about Supergiants:

For millennia humanity has looked upward and traced stories in the night sky, projecting our human wants and desires outward. In Supergiants, Kyle Flemmer turns his gaze in the other direction. What does our reach for the stars say about us? Working with the technical language of engineering and astrophysics, Flemmer reorients the reader within our galaxy. Families of asteroids expand to contain their physical attributes, the mythic stories of their names and the histories of real people. We see the course of lunar exploration through the fate of the flags planted on each mission. Nebulae, blue giants and black holes enfold us. Interspersed throughout are a series of found/collage poems that visually reconfigure the elements of space exploration and our understanding of it. Through it all, Flemmer shows how we turn to the stars to make sense of ourselves and our place in the universe.

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A photo of poet Kyle Flemmer. He is a tall, light skin-toned man with close-cropped dark hair and a bushy, dark beard. He wears glasses and a dark grey shirt, and is crowned with a string of dandelions. He looks to be mid laugh, his hands rising from his sides.

Kyle Flemmer is a writer, publisher and digital media artist from Calgary in Treaty 7 territory. He founded The Blasted Tree Publishing Co. in 2014 and released his first book, Barcode Poetry, in 2021. Flemmer is the author of many chapbooks and his work has appeared in anthologies and exhibitions in Canada and abroad. Supergiants is Kyle’s first trade book of poetry, and his next, The Wiki of Babel, is forthcoming from the University of Calgary Press.

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Supergiants is available now, here or from your favourite indie bookstore.

For more Poetry in Motion, click here.