You May Not Take the Sad and Angry Consolations

Shane Neilson (mad/autistic) is a poet born in New Brunswick whose work is inspired by rural land lapped by the Saint John River. He is the author of more than a dozen volumes of poetry and prose, including You May Not Take the Sad and Angry Consolations (icehouse poetry, 2022). Amongst a long list of accolades, Shane's work has been awarded the Hamilton Book Prize and the Miramichi Reader Book of the Year. He has also been nominated for the Trillium Poetry Prize. His poetry has appeared widely in international publications such as POETRY (US), Prairie Schooner (US), and Magma (UK). In 2025, he is serving as a judge for the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.

“Striking not just because of the relentless questioning, but because those questions are always pressing at the core of what it means to be here together. The clarity comes in realizing how few answers we actually have.”