Ali Blythe Reads Stedfast

Breaking open John Keats’s “Last Sonnet,” Ali Blythe writes marginality into the canon, at once claiming, reviving and un-fixing the Romantic vision.

Taking place over one night, the poet in bed next to a sleeping lover, Blythe’s revelatory poems struggle with questions of illusion and reality, immersion and escapism, that which endures and that which is transient.

Held taut in formal quivers of short lines, each poem is shot through with eros—to address, to dress and undress, the subject of the love poem and perhaps love itself.

More information on Stedfast can be found on the publisher's website.

Ali Blythe is the author of critically acclaimed poetry collections exploring trans-poetics. About him, Stewart Cole writes, “It’s exciting to see a writer so conscious of building a body of work within and across collections, pursuing not just a set of ideas and concerns but an artistic vision.”

Ali has held roles as a guest editor of special editions of literary magazines including for The League of Canadian Poets, Arc Magazine and Malahat Review, and as editor-in-chief for the Claremont Review, an international literary magazine for youth.

His poems and essays have been published in national and international literary journals and anthologies, including The Broadview Introduction to Literature, Best Canadian Essays and Best Canadian Poetry.

An experience in deep listening, each Whole Cloth Reading Series event features a single poet who reads an entire book of poems from cover to cover. While poets devote immense craft to shaping a book, public readings tend to favor selections and excerpts. Uniting writer and audience in a celebration of expansive and unhurried attention, this series creates a rare environment for the investigation of poetry, sound, delivery and reciprocity. Each event features a transformative (short!) book and concludes in time for a cordial reception and conversation.

Series Conveners: Elee Kraljii Gardiner, poet; Bronwen Tate, Creative Writing

Series Event Dates: Nov 8, Feb 13, Apr 10