Stephen Collis Livres

Exploring the diverse themes of politics, philosophy, and economics, this collection honors the impactful work of poet Phyllis Webb. It delves into her innovative approach and the profound insights she offers, showcasing her unique voice and contributions to contemporary poetry. The celebration highlights her ability to intertwine complex ideas with lyrical expression, making her work resonate in both literary and social contexts.

Exploring themes of historical authenticity and narrative authority, this novel is structured in two distinct parts. The first presents an edited narrative of questionable origins, while the second offers a collection of "documents" that provide context and insight into the initial story. As familiar characters are unveiled as writers, the narrative intertwines with the ghosts of past social revolutions in Catalonia and a burgeoning movement in South America, leading to a complex web of emerging and disappearing author/characters that enrich the storytelling.

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries the majority of the English common lands were enclosed, by decree and by force, depriving communities of their independence and self-sufficiency. The resistance to capitalism's "primitive accumulation," registered in recurring peasant revolts and nighttime attacks on hedges and fences, failed to stem the tide of what we now call "privatization" - but it spilled over into Romanticism's own advocacy of a kind of literary commons. Underground in poetry since the nineteenth century, the fight against enclosure resurfaces today amidst continuing accumulation and a renascent sense of the commons under globalization. In The Commons we wander the English countryside with the so-called mad peasant poet John Clare, pick wild fruit with Henry David Thoreau, and comb the Lake District with a host of authors of Romantic guides and tours, undermining William Wordsworth's proprietary claim to the region. Somewhere along the way Robert Frost's wall falls down, the Zapatistas make their appearance, and Gerrard Winstanley reclaims the earth as a "Common Treasury." This second edition includes the essay "Of Blackberries and the Poetic Commons." Stephen Collis is a climate justice activist and a professor of poetry at Simon Fraser University.

Focusing on the deep friendship between Collis and the reclusive poet Phyllis Webb, this memoir explores themes of literary ambition, the complexities of poetry, and the intersection of politics and art. Through a series of poetic and philosophical reflections, it delves into the struggles of writing and the silence that can follow creative endeavors. The narrative unfolds in a non-linear style, intertwining various ideas and experiences, making it a rich meditation on the nature of creativity and the passage of time.

Focusing on themes of resistance and solidarity, this collection of serial poems explores the intersection of poetry and activism. It delves into the power of words to inspire change and highlight social issues, making it a thought-provoking read for those interested in the role of art in social movements. The controversial nature of the poems invites readers to engage with challenging ideas and reflect on the impact of collective action.

Exploring the concept of change, this book examines its philosophical significance across various disciplines and historical periods, tracing its evolution from Ancient Rome to contemporary movements like Occupy. It articulates how the understanding of change has influenced thought and action, revealing the interconnectedness of ideas throughout time.

Structured in three parts, On the Material is a meditation on language, geography, socioeconomics and the body, moving from the glut of fossil-fuelled consumer excess to the materiality of a single book

To the Barricades moves back and forth between historical and contemporary scenes of revolt, from nineteenth-century Parisian street barricades to twenty-first-century occupations and street marches, shifting along the active seam between poetry and revolution. Avant-garde technique is donated to lyric ends, forming an anti-archive of the revolutionary record where words are bricks hurriedly thrown up as linguistic "barricades." Stephen Collis is the author of five books of poetry, including the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize-winning On the Material and three titles in the ongoing "Barricades Project." An activist and social critic, his writing on the Occupy movement is collected in Dispatches from the Occupation (Talonbooks, 2012).

Explores the strange effect our current sense of impending doom has on our relation to time, and asks what resistance to the tenor of these out-of-joint times might look like.