Sublunary

Lisa Richter is a Toronto-based poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, including Nautilus and Bone, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry in the U.S., and the Robert Kroetsch Award. Her work has been a finalist for a National Magazine Award, longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, and appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and will be serving as the 2026-2027 Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University.

"These poems are moving sublunary folk tales, a contemporary oral tradition of grief and wonder, surprise and bemused celebration. They speak of memory, the steadfast alchemy of self-awareness, of naming, of weaving a cloth of relations with the world and those one loves. They have the steady and certain strength of craft and curiosity. Life as we experience it is beautiful and strange, a painful and tender paradox. These are poems that see. We are seen." Gary Barwin, author of The Comedian’s Book of the Dead

• Staying PowerI.False AwakeningFrog RainCrashing the FloodgatesTabula RasaFlotsam and JetsamThe Thrill of the FindBlood ConcordanceEquinox in the Crystal ForestA Portrait Made of SeaweedI’m Not Being Hard on Myself, You’re Being Hard on YourselfOnism for BeginnersIf You’re Anything Like MeAt the Oracle of DelphiBe Someone Who Would Have Been Burned at the Stake 500 Years AgoAestheticsII.Marc ChagallMissed FlightLower SoulDays of AweReading ZagajewskiThree Years, Two Months and Twelve Days After My Father Dies OverseasMountain ConcordanceCommuniqué from the Fortunate IslandsEpithalamiumLoss Isn’t so ImportantMoon PhaseryGhazal with Malbec, No CigarettesThe Pomegranate YearSpring Poem Ending with a Line from Roo BorsonUlcerative Colitis Remission ConditionalWinter SolsticeUnboxing DaySelf-Portrait as Demolished SupermarketHauntologicalArtifact InventoryDisassembly LineIII.Whatever It TakesThe Fish TreesCommuniqué from AtlantisBloordale Elegy/li>Yes, andAgainst “The Road Not Taken”Modern MiraclesHow the Moon Invents MemoryCloud ConcordanceStill, LifeAnabasisIf You Dwell on a Grave While Out of BreathSea GriefMarriage TalesMinor WorriesToday the Universe Can Be Viewed by Members OnlyMarvelosityHermit AriaLiving WillBetween Falling to Earth and Floating in SpaceSublunaryNotesAcknowledgments