National Network for Equitable Library Service

Written amid wildfires and atmospheric rivers, The Middle extends Stephen Collis's investigation of threatened climate futures into a poetics of displacement and wandering. The fulcrum of a trilogy begun with A History of the Theories of Rain, The Middle hikes the shifting treelines of our warming world to reflect on the way all life is on the move.

BC Book Prize, Poetry: Cecily Nicholson, From the Poplars (Winner). In the North Arm of British Columbia's Fraser River lies an uninhabited island. Guarded by water from the city of New Westminster's bustling industrial and shipping district, Poplar Island is lush and unspoken—but storied. It is the traditional territory of the Qayqayt peoples. Made into property—a parcel of land belonging to the "New Westminster and Brownsville Indians"—it is the location of one of British Columbia's first Indian Reserves.

Hastings–Sunrise is a love letter to a fleeting place and time. Bren Simmers's second collection captures her old East Vancouver neighbourhood in the midst of upheaval. As it is colonized by tides of matching plaid and diners serving pulled-pork pancakes, condo developments replace the small businesses and cheap rentals that once gave the area its charm. Much like opening a set of nesting dolls, leafing through the collection exposes further layers of depth and intimacy.

In trademark lyric prose, accompanied by the images depicting the sights and sounds of nature, Warland's roving observations in and around Vancouver's Lost Lagoon offer insights into nature, narratives, and the urban environment. After moving to Vancouver's West End in 2014, The Human is drawn to a small body of water called Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. Daytime visits, with a surprising array of wildlife, are quietly revelatory—but so is suddenly waking in the night when owl hoots, or geese startle in alarm at otter on the prowl.

With Here, award-winning poet Colin Browne offers a book of luminous encounters, contradictions, collisions, and meditations on art, nature, justice, historical memory, and territorial occupation. Browne's texts mine the harrowing destinies and densities of place—in this case, of the North American Northwest Coast. The work's seven movements are tuned to the autobiographical, alert to rhythm and improvisation, and immersed in an ambience of memory and tenderness.

In their second poetry collection, Tawahum Bige explores belonging and voice of a Two-Spirit Dene youth. These poems are a stark plunge—an answer to how voice emerges for a young Two Spirit growing up in so-called "Surrey, BC," far from his Lutselk'e Dene territories. The fundamental thrum in which vocal cords produce sound to whisper, cry, holler and laugh—these inner workings are made corporeal through moments of growth from childhood to young adulthood to show how the seeds sprouted for someone who needed to learn to express to find their path.

In Deepfake Serenade - Chris Banks's sixth poetry collection - irreverent charm, emotional distance and surprising hot takes leap off every page. He writes in the title poem, "Inside every one of us is a deepfake. A holy ghost," suggesting people have a choice to feel either like sad imposters or, if they're brave, like survivors staring down a world both utterly familiar and strange.

Pink Moon is part anthem of decolonization, part oracle of the times. Earthy, magical, and steeped in ancestral connection, Roshan James fuses her lived experience as a Tibetan-Indian born in Scarborough, Ontario, with a tangible connection to nature, humanity, and realms of consciousness. Growing up in the South Asian diaspora, but feeling disconnected from her cultural roots, James makes peace with the tension between her self-identities through poetry. With lyrical ease and simplicity, James resonates off the page, holding the reader in a space, almost trance-like, of quiet confidence.

With compassion, humour and sharp-eyed irreverence, Ronna Bloom's work has made a significant impact on Canadian poetry. A Possible Trust is selected from her work to date. Bloom writes concisely of the precarious, the ephemeral, the epic, and of the fragility and determination of people in daily life and extraordinary health crises. She is attentive to suffering, as well as to spontaneous connections and gestures of love. Her poetry has been used by teachers, architects, spiritual leaders, and in hospitals across Canada.

What can it look like for poetry to bear witness? What might it feel like for a poem to keep company? A Different Species of Breathing: The Poetry of Sue Goyette offers an introduction to the work of a poet whose writing attends to these large and connected questions. Goyette's poetry experiments with (and pushes at the edges of) lyric poetry to explore webs of connection.