Poetry. Verses, essays, confessions, reports, translations, drafts, treatises, laments and utopias, 1995-2007. Collected by Elisa Sampedrin. Lisa Robertson's poems both court and cuckold subjectivity by unmasking its fundament of sex and hesitancy, the coil of doubt in its certitude. Reading her laments and utopias, we realize that, in any she and a she's assumption of thinking, language—whiplike—casts ahead of itself a fortuitous form. The form brims here pleasurably with dogs, movie stars, broths, painting's detritus, Latin, and pillage. We recognize our grand, saddened century. Editor Elisa Sampedrin says, "Every time I found a poem of hers, she saved me writing one. She gave volume to my intervals. I kept looking. I radiated. I made requests. I found other Lisa Robertsons and rejected them: she is not a flight attendant, not a cheerleader or home shopping host. She is chagrin's first companion, error. When I find her in person, I'll engage her in fisticuffs."

Author Hometown: Burnaby, BC CAN



About the author: Lisa Robertson's books of poetry include XECLOGUE, DEBBIE: AN EPIC (nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 1998), THE WEATHER (winner of the Relit Award for Poetry in 2002), THE MEN and LISA ROBERTSON'S MAGENTA SOUL WHIP. University of California Press published Rousseau's Boat in Spring 2010. She is currently writer in residence at Simon Fraser University.

Reviews:
Rebecca Farivar at Octopus
Song-Reviewed by Daniela Gesundheit at Octopus
Chris Hosea @ Third Factory's Attention Span 2009
Kevin Killian @ Third Factory's Attention Span 2009
Zachariah Wells in Quill & Quire
Brian Joseph Davis @ Eyeweekly
Emily Critchley @ HOW2
MP3: audio of reading at Moe's Books March 7, 2009
Stephen Burt in The New York Times
NY Times 100 Notable Books of 2010