Imaginary Origins: Selected Poems 1972–2003

by Cyril Dabydeen

With a clarity drawn from careful craft, this collection of poems features 30 years of work from a Guyanese Canadian deeply immersed in the transformations of the immigrant experience and able to reflect on a rich personal history. Whether concerned with Guyanese memory or the Canadian present, these poems engage the reader with an open, conversational tone. Encompassing confessional, narrative, and mythic styles, this work is at home in vast poetic and geographic territories and sheds light on a life and career that has spanned genres and nations.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Cyril Dabydeen has written poetry, short stories, and novels, and has edited A Shapely Fire: Changing the Literary Landscape and Another Way to Dance: Contemporary Asian Poetry in Canada and the U.S. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Canada, the US, the UK, India, and the Caribbean, and been anthologized in many places. He has been recommended for a Journey Prize and a National Magazine Award.