It is important to me to elevate the voices of female writers from my city. Voices that are rich, diverse and often lost in the shadows of larger cities like Vancouver and Toronto. In light of everything happening in the USA and around the world right now, it feels even more imperative to make sure I use this space to showcase a book from a Black author. This Is How We Disappear by Edmonton poet Titilope Sonuga is a book of raw beauty and fierce joy. It is a book I return to often for its startling, fevered and sometimes brutal exploration of the female journey.
The poem "Missing" from this collection holds resilience and prayer together with shards of glass as Titi maps her own immigrant experience with the story of the missing Nigerian Chibok girls and missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. It is a profound and powerful piece and one I implore the readers of Fiddlehead to seek out. This Is How We Disappear is published by Write Bloody North.
Rayanne Haines is an award-winning author and poet of four traditionally published books. She is the recipient of the 2019 Edmonton Artist Trust Fund Award and the co-host of the poetry podcast, Let’s Get Lit. From 2012 to 2019 She led the Edmonton Poetry Festival as executive director. Two poems from Rayanne are forthcoming in a future issue of The Fiddlehead.
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