The Seated Woman
Poems
Clémence Dumas-Côté author E S Taillon translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:House of Anansi Press Ltd ,Canada
Published:8th May '25
Should be back in stock very soon
Longlisted, 2026 League of Canadian Poets' Pat Lowther Memorial Award
THE POEMS
You fell asleep on the tiles,
a translucent peacock loomed,
your sex opened and let out
a very blue, very high flame.
You wore a split veil, that morning.
Silent, nailed to her chair, the seated woman writes. She cracks. The poems fidget, slip their fingers: they seek to enter. Perched on her shoulder, the poems whisper in her ear. She captures their messages: “I love the sacred contortions you offer me.” The poems protest: “You're squeezing us too hard: careful, pet.”
More than descriptors, the words behave as commands or moves in a game—and the voice of the seated woman rises to play.
"E. S. Taillon beautifully shapes Clémence Dumas-Côté’s duel in English, creating a luminous, sharp-tender, glad réplique that lets poet stand up to poetry." —Erín Moure, author of Theophylline: an a-poretic migration via the modernisms of Rukeyser, Bishop, Grimké
"A conversation, an antiphony, a tug of war, a dance, in which the beauty of the French surfaces through the equal beauty of the English." —Rhonda Mullins, translator of Pale Shadows and Sing, Nightingale
“A fresh and frankly inspired collection … From theatre to the art of folded paper, the poems show the reader a more porous boundary between poetry and other forms of expression.” —Montreal Review of Books
"A collection at once expansive and claustrophobic … Where sound creates a tension between tight control and entropy." —Winnipeg Free Press
“Each poem is a portal into a richly layered world where fragmented memories, fluid identities, and profound introspection intertwine, creating a deeply immersive and thought-provoking reading experience.” —Sandbox World
- Long-listed for League of Canadian Poets' Memorial Award 2026 (Canada)
ISBN: 9781487013295
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 92g
72 pages