Lyric Sexology Vol. 1

by Trish Salah

“That’s the bones of Lyric Sexology—that poetry can be a philosophical argument.”
—Trish Salah

Mostly written before the current cultural visibility of trans lit, Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 was Salah’s prescient contribution to a canon of self-determined literature that explores transness. In this case, the author sidesteps the “I” in the text and instead draws on archives—sexological, anthropological, psychological, among others—to demonstrate the shifting and shifty nature of our identities, affiliations, and narratives.

This 2017 edition is the first to be published in Canada and features four new poems and a new cover design by Kai Yun Ching and Wai-Yant Li.

Genres: Poetry, Transgender, Queer, Gender, LGBT

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2014

About the author

Born in Halifax, Trish Salah is the author of the poetry collections, Wanting in Arabic (TSAR 2002, Mawenzi House 2013) and Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 (Roof 2014, Metonymy 2017) and co-editor of special issues of Canadian Review of American Studies 35.2 (2005), TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.4 (2014) and Arc Poetry Magazine 94 (2021). The 2013 edition of Wanting in Arabic won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction and she was Writer-in-Residence at Pierre Burton House in 2019. Her writing has been supported with grants from the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Writers’ Trust of Canada. At the University of Winnipeg she organized the conference, Writing Trans Genres: Emergent Literatures and Criticism and the symposium, Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres. Currently an associate professor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University, she edits the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry and is a member of the editorial boards of Eoagh and Topia. She lives in T'koronto in the traditional territory of the Mississauga, the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinaabeg.

Reviews

[Zoe Tuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Trans women poets: raise your hands if you have written poems about or in the voice of Tiresias? Although I’m not sure if there are enough trans poets AND trans poets who have written Tiresias poems to call them a commonplace, I will cop to having written a few. The figure of Tiresias looms over the search for precedent. Trish Salah recognizes that sometimes the only way around these commonplaces is by honoring the spirit of the search for origins in myth while also critiquing its pitfalls..."

Read more in my review in Tripwire 9. Sneak peak here:

https://tripwirejournal.files.wordpre...

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense, very referential collection of poetry that I suspect would be fruitful to reread many times; you'd get more and more from each reading. Poems about gender, the self, love, mythology, sex, trans ancestors. "I didn't mean to become an I. / I didn't mean to be. But I got caught up predictably, in a subject, History, yours."

Full review on my blog!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this and appreciated all the plays on words and concepts that can happen with poetry. Focused primarily on sexuality and gender concepts and there is some real beautiful gems in this collection.

[Merritt K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Referentially dense but lyrically deft -- at times falls into itself in ways that are difficult to follow but which would probably reward multiple readings.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 by Trish Salah belongs on my list of revolutionary books and cherished poetry. I am struck by Salah’s versatility of style, sense of play, intelligence and engagement with feminism, gender and decolonialism. These are poems of resistance. There are essay poems and ghazals, lush accumulations, spare lines, a variety of language levels, and images that give me poem shiver. My copy of the book is covered in dog-ears and stars.

I’m hoping that trans people find camaraderie, comfort and recognition in these poems. And I hope that there is a volume two.

[Lynn wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

So clumsy

[Mills College Library]

811.6 S1595L 2014