No One Knows Us There

by Jessica Bebenek

From wherever I am, I willsend word like a golden thread,rolling an unravelling ball through time?towards myself.In this stunning debut collection, Bronwen Wallace Award finalist Jessica Bebenek presents two distinct and moving portraits of early womanhood. The first is that of the devoted, caregiving granddaughter navigating hospital hallways and the painful realities of palliative care. The second is that of a woman a decade older, compassionately looking back on her younger self, honouring unimaginable loss and turning it into genuine healing.All at once sensual, visceral, and dreamlike, No One Knows Us There takes us from the sterility of the hospital into the sumptuous natural world. We face horror in a manicured garden and discover beauty in the untamed woods. A theoretical mathematician leads us to an elk encounter, the crooked bodies of birds are found in the spring thaw, and we become our own pet snail in a mason jar.Ultimately, grief is radically transformed through plainspoken yet lyrical language, and this keen examination of trauma evolves into a striking celebration of the inevitability of change.

Genres: Poetry

76 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2025

About the author

Jessica Bebenek is an award-winning poet and writer living in Toronto. She graduated from York University with a BA in Creative Writing & English.

Jessica has featured at readings around Toronto and has been a regular contributor for Uncharted Sounds, The Flying Walrus, and The Town Crier magazines. You can find her poetry & prose in Grain, Carve, Echolocation, and Little Brother, among other places.

She is the founder of the micro press Grow & Grow (formerly Loose Ends Press.) She has two chapbooks: I, Family (2012) and The Novella Project (2013), co-written with Mark Jordan Manner.

www.JessicaBebenek.com
www.GrowandGrow.ca
www.LiveEqualArts.etsy.com

Reviews

[Jillian B · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, wow, this is an incredibly strong debut collection from a poet whose work I look forward to following. The collection is divided in two parts: poems set in the narrator’s painful young adulthood and those set in the relative peace of her later life.

If I could describe this collection in one word, it would be “visceral,” and I mean that as the highest of compliments. Poems about death talk about the often grotesque bodily realities and immense pain of being at the end of one’s life, and yet manage to make it beautiful. Lines like “My grampa died gasping, mouth open/to gulp whatever life had yet to bring him” absolutely blew me away.

And yet this book is also witty, with lines like “I have this really bad habit. It’s called heterosexuality” and an entire poem dedicated to raccoons. Speaking of trash pandas, my fellow Torontonians will feel very at home reading this. This is the first time I’ve seen the notorious Queen and Spadina McDonald’s referenced in a beautiful poetry collection, and I am here for it!

Reading this collection felt at once like talking to a wise sage and like a tipsy conversation with an old friend. I highly recommend this one.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a physical copy!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great debut poetry collection!
Thank you to the publisher for my copy!

[Norah Leighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

happened upon this by chance. saw the book with a maple leaf sticker on it at chapters and was intrigued. the authors name also seemed really familiar to me ( i remember names and such very well) and it turns out the author is a dear friend of my cousins. small world, huh?? couldn't afford to purchase this time so i looked to see if the library i work at had it in the collection and was pleased to find they did. ended up really really enjoying it. great book.

[Courtland Bethune]

Stunning poetry book by a friend.

Beautiful and inspiring writing.

[Sam Portelance · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lovely collection that genuinely follows a narrative thread -- in this case the artist's journey with, through, and past grief.