The poems in Parlance thrash against the matrix of their own referential nature using a series of linguistic echoes that reference writers like the 'maternal' Virginia Woolf or the 'paternal' Leonard Cohen. The rebellious child of Zelazo's text splinters its Modernist and Canadian parentage to occupy an uncharted linguistic space somewhere between excess and void.

These poems are painterly, splintered, majestic. An accomplished first book of poetry, Parlance is an act of becoming, and of coming home.

Suzanne Zelazo is a writer, editor, educator, and former professional triathlete who continues to coach cycling, running and triathlon. She holds a PhD in English with a specialty in female modernism and avant-garde poetry and performance. She has worked in commercial sport publishing, founded and ran the small press literary magazine Queen Street Quarterly, and has taught literature and writing courses at York University and Ontario College of Art and Design University. Her scholarly publications include the co-edited collections Body Sweats: The Uncensored Writings of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (2010) and Crystal Flowers: Poems and a Libretto by Florine Stettheimer (BookThug, 2010). She is also the author of two poetry collections, Parlance and Lances All Alike. Her projects seek to integrate creative expression and the body. Zelazo lives in Toronto.

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