Public Poetics is a collection of essays and poems that address some
of the most pressing issues of the discipline in the twenty-first
century. The collection brings together fifteen original essays
addressing "publics," "poetry," and "poetics" from the situated space of
Canada while simultaneously troubling the notion of the nation as a
stable term. It asks hard questions about who and what count as
"publics" in Canada. Critical essays stand alongside poetry as visual
and editorial reminders of the cross-pollination required in thinking
through both poetry and poetics.
Public Poetics is divided into three thematic sections. The first
contains essays surveying poetics in the present moment through the lens
of the public/private divide, systematic racism in Canada, the
counterpublic, feminist poetics, and Canadian innovations on postmodern
poetics. The second section contains author-specific studies of public
poets. The final section contains essays that use innovative renderings
of "poetics" as a means of articulating alternative communities and
practices. Each section is paired with a collection of original poetry
by ten contemporary Canadian poets.
This collection attends to the changing landscape of critical discourse
around poetry and poetics in Canada, and will be of use to teachers and
students of poetry and poetics.