These are not the potatoes of my youth

Shortlisted, Trillium Book Award for Poetry and Gerald Lampert Memorial Award

In this confessional debut collection, Matthew Walsh meanders through their childhood in rural Nova Scotia, later roaming across the prairies and through the railway cafés of Alberta to the love letters and graffiti of Vancouver. In this nomadic journey, Walsh explores queer identity set against an ever-changing landscape of what we want, and who we are, were, and came to be.

Walsh is a storyteller in verse, his poems laced with catholic "sensibilities" and punctuated with Maritime vernacular. In These are not the potatoes of my youth, Walsh illuminates the complex choreography of family, the anxiety of individuality, and the ambiguous histories of stories erased, forgotten, or suppressed. Readers will find moments of humour, surprise, and a queer realization that all is not what it seems.

Contributors

Matthew Walsh

Matthew Walsh hails from the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and has twice travelled by bus across Canada. Their poems may be found in the Malahat Review, Arc, Existere, Matrix, Carousel, and Geist. Walsh now lives in Toronto.
Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

Preview

Downtown convos – Purple haze – I’m bald – Potato life – From the prairies to the ocean is a long way to go – Sleeping outside the Kelowna bus station – … 13 $1.30

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Agricola Street – Individual cats – Mushaboom – Speech impediment – Cringer – Garbage box with black loons – Your mother underground in St. Clair Station … 20 $2.00

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Airplanes to see your father – I think my dad liked me – Smile if your dad is like Orpheus – Blue potato – Wheelbarrow and cabbage – Red paprika – Sea glass … 25 $2.50

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Your dad’s a regular guy – Dad with tomato plants – Potato people – Potatoes in my life – Inheritance and one ghost – Life of Bryan – More details … 19 $1.90