The Dyzgraphxst

by Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin returns with a mesmerizing new collection, the follow-up to her breakout book, Voodoo Hypothesis.

The Dyzgraphxst presents seven inquiries into selfhood through the perennial figure Jejune. Polyvocal in register, the book moves to mine meanings of kinship through the wide and intimate reach of language across geographies and generations. Against the contemporary backdrop of intensified capitalist fascism, toxic nationalism, and climate disaster, the figure Jejune asks, how have I come to make home out of unrecognizability. Marked by and through diasporic life, Jejune declares, I was not myself. I am not myself. My self resembles something having nothing to do with me.

Genres: Poetry, Canada, Race, Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2020

About the author

Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her books include the acclaimed and awards-nominated Voodoo Hypothesis and The Dyzgraphxst, nominated for ten prizes, finalist for the Trillium and Governor General’s awards for English poetry, and winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. Lubrin was also awarded the 2021 Joseph Stauffer Prize in literature by the Canada Council for the Arts. Poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, she is the Creative Writing MFA Coordinator in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. In 2021, she was awarded a Windham-Campbell prize for poetry. Lubrin’s debut work of fiction is Code Noir: Metamorphoses.
Born in St. Lucia, Lubrin lives in Canada.

Reviews

[Charlie Baylis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fourmillante poésie, poésie pleine de rêves, brillant comme un feu sur ta ville triste et vide.

[Matthew Molinaro]

I told a prof that I wasn't going to a (one of the maybe 15 this semester) canisia lubrin event, and she went "oh so you hate her", still chewing on that!

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

Just fresh from finishing this as part of my #thesealeychallenge, my head is still spinning and my heart still pounding. One of the many things that dazzle in this collection is the intriguing use of "I" as it slides fascinatingly from 1st to 3rd person, just as the work's different sequences sweep back and forth from broad experiments in language and history to moments of startling intimacy. In particular, I love how the work builds momentum, taking the reader on a long hike through sometimes thorny, dark foliage, until it breaks into the bright clearing of Act VII, Ain't I Again? - so suffused with poignance and power.

[Marc Nash · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admired the linguistic bravura, but couldn't quite get on its wavelength.

Video review https://youtu.be/d9fkTjija4Y

[Marilyn Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry is one of the most incredibly beautiful works I’ve read in years. Lubrin’s language is lyrical, emotionally true, and effective. Her use of structure in the various Acts of the book is sure and adds to the experience of the long poem’s variations. It is a book that can be read as a whole or dipped into again and again. It is staying on my table, not being put away on the shelf. A timely and resonating work.

[ChiChi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could see that the writing was beautiful, but was completely lost. When I say completely, yes there were a few sections that I could read and understand - mostly I was lost. It's got to go back to the library, and I do hope that I will get back to it. Did find, through one of the reviews on this site, an interview with Canisia, will listen to that and hopefully gain some clarity. Will also see if any of my co-workers have read it, and see if I can gain some insight there.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the most satisfyingly crunchy, mouthcoating wordplay I've come across, fractured identities and languages and the push pull and confusion of voices flowing into some sort of diasporic entity.

But while I admire the construction and flow, even after several readings, the deliberate difficulty and impenetrability frustrates me just enough to keep it from blowing my mind.

[S P · Rating 3 out of 5]

15 ‘but what about these feet now that they are not ceased
in their act of marking things, disappeared things

things given over to the gesture, the method, to the field
awash and undertow, what is love but the hand returning
to claim the dust red, white, black as a coal-swept evening’

30 ‘rest here in this sentence where nobody knows I’

41 ‘speech branching out of shipwreck’

44 ‘now even with a percussed tongue
I can put the world back together
with the twisted timbres of a ship

from some unknown century’

162 ‘and the dread thing is that I forget and must do it
all again, a dyzgraphxst, je connais, justement—
I, (re)done when the world itself awake again’

[atito · Rating 4 out of 5]

the residue of language left to the side when establishing an "I."

"where no garden grows, no strawberries have left seeds to-do, scrap / this smuggled demesne down to the size of a retraction of our steps, / inside the I is a word and a being, inside the being a peculiar thunder / rusty aftertaste of measuring and measuring the miraculous whose / version of this life we lose to a terrible twist"

"for how long: this problem I have with dream"

[Greg Bem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explorations aquatic and fluid on the crossroads of identities. Explores histories. Examines Blackness and indigenous presence. The feminine, the feminist. The writing, incredibly challenging through its many systems of language, also speaks plainly, directly, and bluntly. A work returning to for its whole and the fragments making it up.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow oh wow. I love the way this book is at once unabashedly smart and unabashedly beautiful. I admit that I found the poetry dense and at times impenetrable; nonetheless I was blown away by the power of what I was reading. I feel that I could reread this every day, and that it would be a different poem every time.
This is a book I think everybody should have in their house.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a challenging book, even for myself who loves a complicated, experimental text. That being said there are gorgeous lines, beautiful language. It explores the diaspora in many voices, a Jejune, geographies, generations, talking to each other. Selfhood is forged, questioned, broken down systematically, played with. A difficult subject to portray and it does so successfully.

[Jamjun Rorsoongnern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lubrins poetry is saturated with the oceanic ebbs of Christina Sharpe, Dionne Brand, and many more. The voice across this work is polyphonic and overlapping, implicating the reader both into the chorus and as a witness. The generative detritus of the poetic line (in terms of form) shows the incredible craft of visual and conceptual subjecthood. It’s a formidable feat of poetry!

[Jacob Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few lines from the The Dyzgraphxst:


"& these hours where finally

we demand

the fucked-with be unfucked-with"

[df parizeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way this book winds in and out of tangible and dream, is marvelous. I have read few collections of poetry that are structured in such a way that the chapters are cohesive wholes, yet enmeshed with their neighbors become more vibrant.

[Luke Spooner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had a hard time getting into/understanding it.

[Barbara McVeigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language operated a shift in my brain.

https://www.telltellpoetry.com/tell-t...

[Salty Swift · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever get frustrated with poetry, I'd highly recommend you pick up this extended poem. Suffused with an odd beat and roaming with freedom to spare, the author spews wordplay that puts most other contemporary works to shame. Outrageously moving and mind scrambling work.

[Anick Berger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for school

[Rob Forteath]

This was mostly over my head. The parts I understood, I mostly liked. Some sections were just baffling.

[Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just in awe of Lubrin's mastery of language.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dyzgraphxst is an exceptional articulation of anti-colonialism, racism, climate crisis, oil, family, mothering, community, identity, an exploration of Blackness, erasure and otherness, the consequences of forgetting history and the impact on our 21st Century dystopian realities. The language is gorgeous, the structure thoughtful and effective.

here's a link to my notes on the book: https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.c...

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I share my thoughts on this poetry collection here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAHvX...