Canisia
Lubrin
Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor, and teacher whose books include Voodoo Hypothesis and The Dyzgraphxst. Her work has been nominated by the Griffin Poetry Prize and two OCM Bocas Prizes, and in 2020 she was selected as a Writers’ Trust Rising Star. In 2021 she was awarded a Windham-Campbell prize for poetry and The Globe & Mail named her Poet of the Year. Lubrin has held fellowships at the Banff Centre, Civitella Ranieri in Italy, Simon Fraser University, and Literature Colloquium Berlin. She coordinates the Creative Writing MFA in the School of English & Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. Code Noir is Lubrin’s debut work of fiction. She lives in Whitby, Ontario and is poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart.
Videos
Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin
Award History
Jury Citation
“A collection that is profound and inveterately inventive, Code Noir expands what is possible in the realm of narrative. With purposeful defiance, Lubrin writes stories that cut effortlessly across eras and continents with the Black diaspora, within and against a history of institutionalized violence and oppression. She pushes against the laws governing what words can and can’t do, emerging finally with a sharp-edged language that is entirely sui generis. Lubrin’s work is conceptual genius, allusive across a wide swath of culture, from jazz to literature to art. Code Noir is a singular achievement.”—2024 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize jury (Saeed Teebi, Joan Thomas, and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike)
Program History
Citation
“Encountering Canisia Lubrin’s work is like suddenly being thrown into terrain that is both sombre and uplifting, unearthly and grounded at the same time. Her landscapes — physical, linguistic, and psychological — displace you in ways that are disturbing yet delightful. An accomplished and recognized poet — Lubrin is already a star in that sense — it will be extremely rewarding for us as she turns her devastating gifts to prose. She will push us and break us in ways that will continue to let the light in. As she writes in Voodoo Hypothesis: ‘They are never rigid, those who watch from the treetops.’ Whatever genre Canisia Lubrin chooses, she will shine.” —2020 Writers' Trust Rising Stars selector Anosh Irani
