The Mundane, the Sublime, and the Fantastical

(Paperback)

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COVID meditations from literary phenom Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

The relationship between the quotidian and the extraordinary is symbiotic: they defined each other. InSong & Dread, Bitek becomes a record keeper, observing this contradictory relationship from inside the quagmire of pandemic days. Rife with the paradoxical forces of boredom and intensity, the early days of COVID-19 passed under an inescapable pall. The poems ofSong & Dreadseek quietude, order, refuge, and space within that shroud. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared in a time of limited access and limitless grief. Innovative and playful in form, the works in this collection are of the time, while remembering an existence outside the present. They juxtapose the sensational news stories of daily turmoil and sorrowful social-media posts with the winnowed-down nature of life in a global crisis. With a keen eye, Bitek documents the ways the strange can become normalized when there is no other option.

Author Bio

Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry, 100 Days (University of Alberta, 2016) was nominated for several writing prizes, including the 2017 BC Book Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, the 2017 Alberta Book Awards, and the 2017 Canadian Authors Award for Poetry. It won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for Poetry and the 2017 Glenna Lushei Prize for African Poetry. Otoniya is an assistant professor of Black Studies at Queen's University, where she teaches and writes in the English and Gender Studies departments.