Atwater Library and Computer Centre

Photo: Brian Pirie

PEARL PIRIE’S third trade collection is the pet radish, shrunken (BookThug, 2015) demonstrates how “the experiment finds its own lyric, that lyric has more than enough room for experiment.” It follows Thirsts (Snare, 2011) which won the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and been shed bore (Chaudiere Books, 2010). A jurist for writing awards, workshop teacher and publisher, her poems have been included in curricula and anthologies, including in The Best Canadian Poetry 2014. Pirie has over a dozen chapbooks including Please Don’t Tickle the Salamander’s Belly (In/words, 2015) and polyphonic choral of civet tongues and manna (unarmed, 2014). She has a forthcoming chapbook with words(on)pages in 2016. Her phafours press has published over three-dozen chapbooks. Literary Landscape host, organizer of Tree Seed Workshops (2009-2014), contract editor of manuscripts, she gives workshops and talks on poetry for various organizations, and blogs and photographs Ottawa’s rich, amazing literary scene. pearlpirie.com