John Wall Barger & Khashayar Mohammadi

"What a joy to have another book by John Wall Barger. Restless, passionate, and ambitious, Smog Mother is an ecstatic travelogue whose narrator is always on the move, full of yearning and curiosity, even as he remains an outsider in each country that he visits. The poems in Smog Mother ask probing questions about love and empathy, and about what it means to be a spectator to other people’s pain. Barger is introspective and self-critical, yet far more interested in others than in himself; his eye is continually drawn to the margins of society, and to those whose lives are most in danger of being forgotten or erased. A powerful collection."—James Arthur, author of The Suicide’s Son

https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/smog-mother-john-wall-barger/

John Wall Barger’s poems and critical writing have appeared in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review Online, Zyzzyva, Rattle, The Cincinnati Review, The Hopkins Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and Best of the Best Canadian Poetry. His poem, “Smog Mother,” was co-winner of The Malahat Review’s 2017 Long Poem Prize. His fifth collection of poems, Resurrection Fail (Spuyten Duvyil Press, 2022) was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Poetry Award, the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and the Grayson Book Prize. His next collection, Smog Mother, is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press (Fall 2022). He is a contract editor at Frontenac House. Barger lives in Philadelphia, where he teaches Creative Writing at The University of the Arts.

WJD is an irreverent phenomenology of West-Asia, where Islamicate consciousness is driven in and out of a plethora of conflicting ideologies and has left an impression deep enough to be read across the centuries. It also includes The OceanDweller, a translation of Saeed Tavanaee Marvi's experimental tale of the power of poetry dipped in marine biology and shades of astronomy. The two volumes are printed together, one beginning from each side, with its own cover, making a unique and beautiful book.

https://www.gordonhillpress.com/collections/titles/products/wjd

Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi (They/Them) is a queer, Iranian born, Toronto-based Poet, Writer and Translator. They were shortlisted for the 2021 Austin Clarke poetry prize and 2022’s Arc Poem of the year award and they are the winner of the 2021 Vallum Poetry Prize. They are the author of four poetry chapbooks and three translated poetry chapbooks. Their debut poetry collection "Me, You, Then Snow" is out with Gordon Hill Press. Their second book “WJD” is forthcoming in a double volume with the translation of Saeed Tavanaee’s “The OceanDweller” from Gordon Hill Press fall 2022. Their collaborative poetry manuscript with poet Klara Du Plessis is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press Fall 2023.

-

Note that TAP is a fully accessible space and that masks are optional subject to the state of the pandemic come October.