Poet Talk: Emily Osborne

Join us for a talk by local poet, Emily Osborne, who will be reading from her new book of poetry, Safety Razor, published by Gordon Hill Press (2023).

• Read the Bowen Island Undercurrent article interviewing Emily Osborne

Safety Razor combines personal lyrics with translations from Old Norse, its taut poems running like high-wires between the poles of terror and joy, danger and safety, erudition and naivety. Mingling subjects as diverse as dinosaur bones and diacritical markers, Vikings and mothering, Safety Razor pits cultural and historical flotsam against the intimate and the academic. Be prepared for a voice that is both vulnerable and scientific as it explores the exploitation of Jumbo the Elephant, how a baby experiences a tornado, or a Viking demonstration of poetic prowess through vomit and blood. Every line in Osborne’s sharp verse is like a “pin dipped in tobacco spit,” something inked with precision and grit.

Author photo by Candace Kabantsov.