Home
the berry takes the shape of the blame (Talonbooks $18.95) unfolds as a narrative born from optimism amid loss, pain, difficulty, and fear. Initially, a linear portrayal of a contented and secure trans person's life, the poems evolve into snapshots of diverse moments. These verses resonate with varied emotions, surfacing as anxiety, anger, love, or eagerness, reflecting the complexity of human experience.
The collection weaves around intertwined themes of gender, family, trans pregnancy, abuse, fear, and the process of becoming. Each poem acts as a witness, some holding grudges while others break free from them. Drawing a parallel to the growth of blueberries, where the berry assumes the shape of the bloom preceding it, the poems explore the intricate connections between past and present, much like the evolving stages of a bloom transforming into a berry. The narrator's reflection on displacement and the question of whether they "berry" encapsulates the overarching theme of identity and the intricate dance between individual growth and familial influence.
As a UBC Creative Writing graduate, Hamilton, Ontario-raised andrea bennett, is a nonbinary National Magazine Award–winning writer, editor, and illustrator who lives in Ayjoo mixw (Powell River), BC. Their first book of essays, Like a Boy but Not a Boy: Navigating Life, Mental Health, and Parenthood outside the Gender Binary (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), was a CBC Books’ pick for the top Canadian non-fiction of the year. andrea’s poetry and non-fiction has been widely published in magazines and newspapers such as the Walrus, the Atlantic, Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, the Tyee, the Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, Vice, Geist, CV2, Grain, the Fiddlehead, the Malahat Review, and Arc. With Kim Fu they co-host The Rough Puffs, a Great British Bake Off rewatch podcast now entering its third season.
BOOKS:
Canoodlers (Nightwood, 2014) $18.95 9780889712973
Like a Boy but Not a Boy: Navigating Life, Mental Health, and Parenthood outside the Gender Binary (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020) $21.95 9781551528212
the berry takes the shape of the bloom (Talonbooks, 2023) $18.95 9781772015515
[BCBW 2023]
The collection weaves around intertwined themes of gender, family, trans pregnancy, abuse, fear, and the process of becoming. Each poem acts as a witness, some holding grudges while others break free from them. Drawing a parallel to the growth of blueberries, where the berry assumes the shape of the bloom preceding it, the poems explore the intricate connections between past and present, much like the evolving stages of a bloom transforming into a berry. The narrator's reflection on displacement and the question of whether they "berry" encapsulates the overarching theme of identity and the intricate dance between individual growth and familial influence.
As a UBC Creative Writing graduate, Hamilton, Ontario-raised andrea bennett, is a nonbinary National Magazine Award–winning writer, editor, and illustrator who lives in Ayjoo mixw (Powell River), BC. Their first book of essays, Like a Boy but Not a Boy: Navigating Life, Mental Health, and Parenthood outside the Gender Binary (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020), was a CBC Books’ pick for the top Canadian non-fiction of the year. andrea’s poetry and non-fiction has been widely published in magazines and newspapers such as the Walrus, the Atlantic, Hazlitt, Maisonneuve, the Tyee, the Globe and Mail, Reader’s Digest, Vice, Geist, CV2, Grain, the Fiddlehead, the Malahat Review, and Arc. With Kim Fu they co-host The Rough Puffs, a Great British Bake Off rewatch podcast now entering its third season.
BOOKS:
Canoodlers (Nightwood, 2014) $18.95 9780889712973
Like a Boy but Not a Boy: Navigating Life, Mental Health, and Parenthood outside the Gender Binary (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020) $21.95 9781551528212
the berry takes the shape of the bloom (Talonbooks, 2023) $18.95 9781772015515
[BCBW 2023]
