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QUEER desire

a call for papers

a special issue of _Canadian Poetry_

"snow is our rule of churches, work and laws, / our reticence, our loneliness,
our pause, / the emptiness we live in. This is snow."
— E.A. Lacey, "Canadian Sonnets"

Edward Lacey's 1965 _Forms of Loss_, the first openly gay book of Canadian
poetry, names the then-unnamable, making public a language of desire that often
hesitated in speaking. But queer desire in Canadian poetry has always been
about more than longing and snowy reserve (though, certainly, it has been
that), especially as Lacey uses "snow" to refer to pre-1969 repressive Canadian
jurisprudence. A relatively unexplored academic genre, queer Canadian poetry—-
lesbian, trans, gay, queer, two-spirited—-articulates and challenges the often
problematic categories of longing and belonging in a diverse nation.

Contributions on any area of queer desire in Canadian poetry and/or on queer
writings by Canadian poets are welcome, including original research and theory.
Possible topics may include the history of queer poetry in Canada; the post '69
emergence of a "gay basement" press; situated desires; difference; subversion
and destabilization; the forbidden; political and oppositional desire; camp and
style; issues of class and underclass; colonialist and diasporic desires;
gender and engendering; the body and abilities; straight and bent; and
comparative approaches. Length: ideally 18-25 pages, but others will also be
considered.
 
Poets may include (but are not limited to) Daniel David Moses, Natalie
Stephens, Trish Salah, Douglas LePan, Ian Iqbal Rashid, Robert Finch, Dionne
Brand, Monika Oikawa, E.A. Lacey, Daryl Hine, Dorothy Livesay, Daphne Marlatt,
Betsy Warland, Ian Young, Christine Donald, Patrick Anderson, John Barton,
Tamai Kobayashi, bill bissett, Andy Quan, H. Nigel Thomas, John Grube.

_Canadian Poetry_ is a refereed journal devoted to the study of poetry from all
periods in Canada. Submissions should follow the MLA Style Manual. Please mail
papers in duplicate, with a copy on diskette (MS Word), with SASE; or email as
an attachment (MS Word). Deadline 1 Aug 05. Inquiries welcome.

Dr Andrew Lesk, Guest Editor andrew.lesk_at_utoronto.ca
Canadian Poetry http://andrewlesk.com
c/o Department of English
University of Toronto 416-978-2885 Office
Larkin 202B, 6 Hoskin Ave 416-978-4949 Fax
Toronto ON M5S 1H8

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Received on Mon Jan 10 2005 - 12:07:31 EST