Wizardry, Fucking and Trauma | Lauren Turner
I just finished the highly-anticipated Poetry collection: The Only Card In A Deck Of Knives by Montreal native, Lauren Turner.
This groundbreaking book is a harsh lit audit into the treatment of sick women by the medical professionals that often dismiss as well as discard both their symptoms and feelings. At the same time, it is a self-gaslighting, deep dive into the often tumultuous & painful romantic interludes of youth and the feminine psyche, delivered in highly intelligent spoken-word-like streams of consciousness hitting the reader with waves of insightful wit, delicious analogies and legit poetry noir charm. It is set in sexy and gritty Montreal and is filled with familiar settings. The poetry itself feels very much like the soul of the city where at times it delivers like a high fashion event cocktail and at others like a ratty back alley.
Lauren Turner is a disabled poet and essayist, who wrote the chapbook, We’re Not Going to Do Better Next Time (knife | fork | book, 2018). Her work has appeared in Grain, Arc Magazine, Poetry is Dead, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Puritan, canthius and elsewhere. She won the 2018 Short Grain Contest and was a finalist for the 2017 3Macs carte blanche Prize. She lives in Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal on the unceded land of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation.
SNEAK PEAK WITH PHOTO ESSAY
A few lines, which are what I call the money shots of this work are these highly illustrative word-paintings of beautiful darkness. There is certainly a goth-princess appeal to the emerging trend of sickness poetry written by women.
ORDER THE BOOK ONLINE
What better way to cozy up and face a Montreal winter, COVID-19 Edition, than with a a new book.
You can order the book from Wolsak & Wynn for $18.99 (CAN).
ADVANCE PRAISE
“An exquisitely feral ballet, The Only Card in a Deck of Knives burrows into the belly of poetry, its guts and blood. Lauren Turner expertly orchestrates swift melodies out of fables, cocktail hours and illness to counter the magical beast that is the literary life, its toxic lore, power dynamics and embodied sacrifices. Never have I witnessed anyone wield our shared illusions and realities with such earned purpose and defiant precision. Here is a new mythology that may topple the towers that loom darkly over our lives and art.” – Adèle Barclay, author of Renaissance Normcore andIf I Were in a Cage I’d Reach Out for You
Curious about other dark local creations? Play hooky, run yourself a hot bath, poor yourself a glass of jammy Cab Sauv and enjoy the haunting aromas of 7 Deadly Soaps & Fragrances!
