A beautiful re-issued edition of poetry from the Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning author of How To Pronounce Knife

FEATURING A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

Winner of the Trillium Book Award for Poetry

Light examines the word that gives the collection its name. There are poems about a sparkle, about how to say light, about a scarecrow, a dung beetle, a fish without eyes. Known for her precision and elegance, for her spare, clear voice, for distilling meaning from details, for not wasting words, Thammavongsa confirms her gifts with these astonishing poems. Light is a work that shines with rigour, humour, courage, and grit.

First published in 2013, Souvankham Thammavongsa’s award-winning third book of poetry is an indispensable contribution to Canadian literature.

Souvankham Thammavongsa was born in Nong Khai, Thailand, in 1978 and was raised and educated in Toronto. She won the 2004 ReLit prize for her first poetry book, Small Arguments. She is also the author of a second poetry book, Found, which was made into a short film and screened at film festivals worldwide, including Toronto International Film Festival and Dok Leipzig. Some of her poems were written while she was a resident at Yaddo. Poems have appeared in many of Canada’s literary journals and magazines, including Canadian Literature, Contemporary Verse 2, dANDelion, Event, The Fiddlehead and The Windsor Review. The poem “The Sun in Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away” appeared in the anthology Troubling Borders: Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora published by the University of Washington Press in the United States. The poem “Perfect” was nominated for a National Magazine award. Thammavongsa was named one of “Best Under 35” writers in Canada in a special issue of The Windsor Review. She lives in Stouffville, Ontario.

Souvankham Thammavongsa's profile page

Praise for Souvankham Thammavongsa and Light:
“Thammavongsa’s poems are gentle yet sly, both glance and glimpse—the glint of a moment as it disappears.” —Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces and All We Saw

"Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Light is as economical an account of the entire world as one could hope to find. The poet’s powerful zoom lens transforms a light bulb box to a Buddhist temple, a plot of parsley to a cheerleading squad, a colossal squid to supper, the sky to an ashtray, and dung to light. If “profound pun” is an oxymoron to you, then Thammavongsa will show you the error of that thinking. At once serious and hilarious, singular and deeply relatable, this collection is a landmark in contemporary poetry." -- Citation, Trillium Book Award for Poetry