Jason Purcell

Jason Purcell’s debut collection of poems rests at the intersection of queerness and illness, staking a place for the queer body that has been made sick through living in this world. Part poetic experiment and part memoir, Swollening attempts to diagnose what has been undiagnosable, tracing an uneven path from a lifetime of swallowing bad feelings—homophobia in its external and internalized manifestations, heteronormativity, anxiety surrounding desire, aversion to sex—to a body in revolt. In poems that speak using the grammar and logics of sickness, Purcell offers a dizzying collision of word and image that is the language of pain alongside the banality of living on. Beginning by reading his own life and body closely and slowly zooming out to read illness in the world, Purcell comes to ask: how might a sick, queer body forgive itself for a natural reaction to living in a sick world and go on toward hope? In Swollening, Purcell coughs up his own poetics of illness, his own aesthetics of pain, to form a tender collection that lands straight in the gut.

Swollening

A tender debut poetry collection that examines the queer, sick body as a reaction to an ill world and asks it how to move on toward hope.

Curtis Gillespie

Marie J. Carrière

"Ten years, ten authors, ten critics. The Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de littérature canadienne reached into its Brown Bag Lunch Reading Series to present a sampling of some of the most diverse and powerful voices in contemporary Canadian literature from Newfoundland to British Columbia. Each piece is accompanied by a concise critical essay addressing the author's writerly preoccupations and practices. The literary selections and essays will be of interest to engaged readers who want direction in analyzing these authors' work as well as to teachers and students of Canadian literature."--

Ten Canadian Writers in Context

Marie Carrière

Ten years, ten authors, ten critics. The Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de littérature canadienne reaches into its ten-year archive of Brown Bag Lunch readings to sample some of the most diverse and powerful voices in contemporary Canadian literature. This anthology offers readers samples from some of Canada’s most exciting writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each selection is introduced by a brief essay, serving as a point of entry into the writer’s work. From the east coast of Newfoundland to Kitamaat territory on British Columbia’s central coast, there is a story for everyone, from everywhere. True to Canada’s multilingual and multicultural heritage, these ten writers come from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, and work in multiple languages, including English, French, and Cree. Ying Chen | essay by Julie Rodgers Lynn Coady | essay by Maïté Snauwaert Michael Crummey | essay by Jennifer Bowering Delisle Caterina Edwards | essay by Joseph Pivato Marina Endicott | essay by Daniel Laforest Lawrence Hill | essay by Winfried Siemerling Alice Major | essay by Don Perkins Eden Robinson | essay by Kit Dobson Gregory Scofield | essay by Angela Van Essen Kim Thúy | essay by Pamela V. Sing

Ten years, ten authors, ten critics. The Canadian Literature Centre/Centre de litt�rature canadienne reaches into its ten-year archive of Brown Bag Lunch readings to sample some of the most diverse and powerful voices in contemporary Canadian literature. This anthology offers readers samples from some of Canada’s most exciting writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each selection is introduced by a brief essay, serving as a point of entry into the writer’s work. From the east coast of Newfoundland to Kitamaat territory on British Columbia’s central coast, there is a story for everyone, from everywhere. True to Canada’s multilingual and multicultural heritage, these ten writers come from diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, and work in multiple languages, including English, French, and Cree. Ying Chen | essay by Julie RodgersLynn Coady | essay by Ma�t� SnauwaertMichael Crummey | essay by Jennifer Bowering DelisleCaterina Edwards | essay by Joseph PivatoMarina Endicott | essay by Daniel LaforestLawrence Hill | essay by Winfried SiemerlingAlice Major | essay by Don PerkinsEden Robinson | essay by Kit DobsonGregory Scofield | essay by Angela Van EssenKim Th�y | essay by Pamela V. Sing

Jason Purcell

About

Books

Join the club