The Outerwards

by Sadiqa de Meijer

“I was awake. / The hour was wrong,” de Meijer writes, and her poems track, in visceral and tender detail, the distraction, exhaustion, exhilaration, and fear of child-rearing through crisis. For de Meijer, the experience was also a crisis of language, and the struggle to find new terms for her state. Addressed, in part, to a child she calls “my grievous spectacle, / my dearest unpossessable,” The Outer Wards is everywhere marked by a joy in words—their quick-fire turns, sumptuous sounds, and nursery-rhyme seductions.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Sadiqa de Meijer is a Canadian poet. Her debut collection, Leaving Howe Island, was a nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 2014 Governor General's Awards and for the 2014 Pat Lowther Award, and her poem "Great Aunt Unmarried" won the CBC's Canada Writes award for poetry in 2012.

She has also published short stories and essays in anthologies and literary magazines.

Born in Amsterdam and raised in Canada, she currently resides in Kingston, Ontario.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. A real gem of a book.

[Jade Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wise, contemplative, observant book.