Shapeshifters

by Delani Valin

In Shapeshifters, Délani Valin explores the cost of finding the perfect mask. Through a lens of urban Métis experience and neurodivergence, Valin takes on a series of personas as an act of empathy as resistance. Some personas are capitalist mascots like the Starbucks siren, Barbie and the Michelin Man, who confide the hopes and frustrations that lay hidden behind their relentless public enthusiasm. Others include psychiatric diagnoses like hypochondria, autism and depression, and unlikely archetypes such as a woman who becomes a land mass by ending the quest to shrink herself. In more confessional poems, the pressure to find relief from otherness often leads to magical thinking: portals, flight, telepathy and incantations all become metaphors for survival. Shapeshifters maps ways in which an individual can attempt to fit into a world that is inhospitable to them, and makes a case to shift the shape of that world.

Genres: Poetry, Indigenous

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2022

Reviews

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shapeshifters is full of fun references like Starbucks, Barbie and the Michelin Man and that’s only in the first three poems! This debut delves into the surreal, Vancouver life, and panic attacks. I loved this book and the cool cover by angyen.design and my fave poems are The Shapeshifter, No Buffalos, and Magic Lessons. If you’re in Vancouver she will be reading at Massy Arts Society on January 8 for A Métis Poet’s Kitchen Party.

Thank you to Nightwood Editions for my gifted review copy!

[Matt Baillie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some things cannot be explained. Some things are incapable of being understood.

Nevertheless there's beauty and power in attempting to understand, and in trying to be understood.

Thank you Delani for going out to the dark woods and gathering the ephemeral, thank you for bringing us to your hearth while you wove it into a toothsome meal.

I laughed. I smiled. I teared up and wept.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this, finished it while on a flight in a couple hours! The start is very sharp, and then the second half delves into deeper topics. I don’t often read English poetry but I’m glad I read this one!

[Sarah Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I did what I could, and I do what I can with these standards I cannot stand..."

Touching on topics of identity, change, generational trauma, societal pressures and human connection, this debut collection from a new, standout voice will leave people wanting to read more!

Tacit, Geologist, and Magic Lessons will all sit with me for a long time and I have them marked to revisit in the future.

There is a lyrical quality to a lot of Valin's poetry that I loved and I think will connect with others as well.

Looking forward to seeing what is next from this author.

Thank you to the publisher for sending a copy my way to review.

[Edward Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come!

[Nick Papaxanthos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly authentic journey of self-discovery. Check out my video review here: https://youtu.be/Qp64yCpSXjE