Canisia Lubrin has been named poetry editor of McClelland & Stewart, taking over from outgoing poetry editor Dionne Brand.
Lubrin is a writer, editor, teacher, and critic, with work published widely in North America, as well as in the U.K. Lubrin’s debut poetry collection, Voodoo Hypothesis was named a CBC Best Poetry Book, longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Her second collection, The Dyzgraphxst was published in March 2020.
Lubrin will begin in her position effective April 1, 2021. In her new role, she will oversee McClelland & Stewart’s poetry program, acquiring and editing five collections per year. Canisia Lubrin said, “It is humbling to come to M&S in this new role as poetry editor following Dionne Brand’s exceptional example. To find myself in company of others so vigorously dedicated to poetry in the still early 21st century is a source of grounding energy and vision. It is one of my life’s great honours to look forward to supporting the continuance of M&S’s distinct legacy of great poetry into its next chapter.”
During her tenure at McClelland & Stewart, Dionne Brand has acquired and edited more than twenty-five works. Her first acquisitions as part of M&S’s poetry board (2014–2016) were Griffin Poetry Prize winner Liz Howard’s Infinite Citizen of the Shaking Tent and Madhur Anand’s A New Index for Predicting Catastrophes. As sole poetry editor from 2017 to 2021, she acquired and edited acclaimed collections by Sonnet L’Abbé, Doyali Islam, Laurie D. Graham, Aisha Sasha John, Nancy Lee, Canisia Lubrin, Noor Naga, Michael Prior, Rebecca Salazar, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Phoebe Wang, Rob Winger, and Kaie Kellough’s Griffin Poetry Prize–winning collection Magnetic Equator. Brand is currently editing four collections, which will be her final for the list. Those collections will be published in 2022.
McClelland & Stewart publisher, Jared Bland, said, “It’s been such a personal and professional thrill to work with the great Dionne Brand, and I’m immensely grateful for her visionary leadership of McClelland & Stewart’s poetry program. Under her guidance, it has reached remarkable new heights, and we will miss her editorial brilliance—though, of course, we are delighted to remain her publisher. I’m thrilled that she will be succeeded by another M&S author, the extraordinary Canisia Lubrin. I know Canisia will honour Dionne’s exceptional legacy, while pushing our publishing into a bold new future. It’s a joy for us all to welcome her to this role.”
Dionne Brand said, “It has been a great pleasure working with the fabulous team at M&S who are as committed as I am to poetry. I am grateful to the legendary Ellen Seligman who first approached me and to Jared Bland who magnified that role. I’ve also had the infinite pleasure of reading and thinking with the brilliant poets on our list, they illuminate the world.”
For decades, McClelland & Stewart’s poetry program has been recognized for its commitment to publishing Canadian poets whose work engages and excites, and who stand out because of the distinctiveness of their voices, their rigorous dedication to craft, and the scope of their imaginations. The program includes the work of Margaret Atwood, Roo Borson, Dionne Brand, Anne Carson, Leonard Cohen, Lorna Crozier, Lorna Goodison, Stevie Howell, Jeff Latosik, Tim Lilburn, Cassidy McFadzean, Don McKay, Anne Michaels, Jacob McArthur Mooney, Susan Musgrave, Michael Ondaatje, Suzannah Showler, Anne Simpson, Adam Sol, John Steffler, and Paul Vermeersch, among others. McClelland & Stewart’s poets have won countless awards throughout Canada, including the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize a remarkable seven times, more than any other house in the prize’s nineteen-year history.
More About Canisia Lubrina
CANISIA LUBRIN is a writer, editor, teacher, and critic, with work published widely in North America, as well as in the U.K. Lubrin’s debut poetry collection, Voodoo Hypothesis, (Buckrider Books, 2017) was named a CBC Best Poetry Book, longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award. Her second collection, The Dyzgraphxst (McClelland & Stewart), was published in March 2020. A collection of short stories, to be published by Knopf Canada, is forthcoming. Her work has been nominated for, among others, the Toronto Book Award, the Journey Prize, and the bpNichol Chapbook Award. In 2020, the Writers’ Trust named Lubrin a recipient of their Rising Stars prize. She was a consulting editor at Wolsak & Wynn, freelance editor of acclaimed and award-winning books, and an editor at Humber Literary Review. In 2019, Lubrin was Writer in Residence at Queen’s University. She teaches Creative Writing at OCAD University and in the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies.
More About McClelland & Stewart
For more than 100 years, McClelland & Stewart has helped to shape and champion Canada’s cultural conversation. We continue to assert our independent spirit by taking bold risks that push the boundaries of literary excellence, challenging the status quo, and reflecting the rich and diverse range of voices in our country and from around the world.
For more information about M&S poetry please visit: http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/programs/ms-poetry