Canisia Lubrin will join McClelland & Stewart as poetry editor beginning April 1. The celebrated poet and author will succeed poet Dionne Brand, who began acquiring poetry for M&S in 2014 as a member of the imprint’s poetry board. Brand has continued with M&S as sole poetry editor since 2017.

In the role, Lubrin will acquire and edit five collections of poetry per year for M&S. The final four collections acquired by Brand will be published in 2022.

When asked about the type of work she hopes to acquire in the role, Lubrin emphasized boldness and ingenuity. “While every attempt at a poem is something to applaud, I will be particularly moved by poetry that envisions the broadness of the world to surprising, inspiring results,” she said by email. “However the poet chooses to do this, these are poems with clear depth of vision, a real command of language, and a willingness to risk startling insight.”

Lubrin is the author of the poetry collections Voodoo Hypothesis (Buckrider Books) and The Dyzgraphxst (McClelland & Stewart), a Quill & Quire Book of the Year in 2020. Lubrin was previously announced as a member of the jury for the 2021 Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, alongside novelists David Chariandy and Esi Edugyan.

M&S has won the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize seven times since the prize was first presented in 2001, most recently for Kaie Kellough‘s 2020 collection Magnetic Equator.

Thinking & making & living w/ the poetry of others is a very special kind of goodness in this world. Thank you, M&S for this welcome. Thanks Paul, @wolsakandwynn & the poets whose works show the world’s depths. I am a better editor because of you. Dionne Brand: all the flowers. https://t.co/lLN1fG1GNF

— canisia lubrin (@canisialu) February 23, 2021

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Update, Feb. 24: This post has been updated with a quote from Canisia Lubrin.