Prismatic Publics

Nicole Brossard, Margaret Christakos, Susan Holbrook, Dorothy Lusk, Karen Mac Cormack, Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, M. NourbeSe Philip, Sina Queyras, Lisa Robertson, Gail Scott, Nathalie Stephens, Catriona Strang, Rita Wong, Rachel Zolf. These fifteen women are some of the best writers engaged in avant-garde literary production today, defining the contours of new movements and schools of writing in North America. By showcasing their work alongside extensive interviews, Prismatic Publics stages intimate encounters with these key figures as they work in and against Language, conceptual, post-conceptual, documentary, and investigative poetry traditions -- often across, between and at the interstices of genres. The writers in this anthology do not represent a single movement or tradition, although they all recognize language as inherently problematic and a perpetual subject of inquiry. Theirs is writing that demands a heightened level of attentiveness and attunement to what language can do on the page and in the social worlds of its making. Gathered in a single volume, these selections, some dating back to the early 1970s and others appearing in print for the first time, provide an opportunity to trace the diverse networks, influences, dialogues, dialectics, and interventions that continue make the work of Canada's innovative women writers a powerful force in avant-garde writing around the world.