On Occasion - by Sina Queyras (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for the author:

'Like the central conceptual apparatus, Queyras is smart and insightful in her 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

About the Author

Sina Queyras is a Montreal/Tiohtià ke-based writer, professor, editor, and literary organizer. They are the author of multiple poetry collections, a novel, and a book of essays, as well as the founder of the blog Lemon Hound, which was for many years the digital hub of the Canadian poetry scene. Recent work includes Rooms (Coach House Books, 2022), a blend of memoir, poetry, and criticism offering a peek into the defining spaces of the author as a young queer writer, and My Ariel (2017), a collection riffing on Sylvia Plath's Ariel, reimagining, queering, and inhabiting its iconic poems. Queyras was also a co-editor of Avant Desire: A Nicole Brossard Reader (2020), which traces the essential feminist poet's innovation, experimentation, and activism across her body of work.