Covering topics as different as domesticity, sensuality and disease, Leslie Timmins' debut collection of poems Every Shameless Ray (Inanna, $18.95) has been described as one that "shimmers with a radiant engagement of life." The poems are arranged in three linked movements ending with a meditation on the visual artist Henri Matisse.

She is also the author of the chapbook The Limits of Windows (The Alfred Gustav Press, 2014).

Timmins holds an MFA in creative writing and her work includes stints as a waitress, community radio host, housing advocate, freelance writer and creative writing teacher. She currently works as an editor, writes reviews for Event magazine, and is a member of the powerX6 writing collective.

Timmins' poems have been shortlisted for the Montreal International Poetry Prize and have won honours in both Canadian and American magazines. Her poems are strongly influenced by the years she spent living in Europe and the Canadian Rockies, as well as by activism and a decades-long Vipassana (insight) meditation practice.

For several years she has volunteered with WRAP, the Women Refugees Advocacy Project, petitioning government to provide effective trauma care and family reunification for female Yazidi refugees in Canada.

BOOKS

Every Shameless Ray (Inanna, 2018) $18.95 978-1771335775

The Limits of Windows (The Alfred Gustav Press, 2014)

[BCBW 2019]