Overview

In Sublunary, Lisa Richter explores what it’s like to live “under the moon” in a world that is simultaneously a heartbreak and a total wonder. Sweetmeats and ocelots rain from the sky. Pets are shadow puppets. A kitten impersonates a teacup. A grieving daughter travels back in time to be at her father’s side in the final hours of his life. Newlyweds soar over the rooftops of west-end Toronto, passing a violin-playing goat along the way. From Atlantis to Mount Olympus to Christie Pits, these poems interweave moments of absurdity and awe, creating a nuanced portrait of what “a reckless intimacy with the world” might look like—for better or worse. Sublunary is a book of elegy, play, and rupture that advocates for an ethics of care, solidarity, and compassion for our perfectly imperfect selves and each other: a mode of survival that is full-throated and, at times, even joyous.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lisa Richter
Publisher:   University of Alberta Press
Imprint:   University of Alberta Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 0.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.120kg
ISBN:  

9781772128543

ISBN 10:   1772128546
Pages:   88
Publication Date:   10 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

True Facts About Grief I. False Awakening Frog Rain The Crashing of the Floodgates Onism for Beginners Flotsam Blood Concordance Escape Room Elegy for Adam Zagajewski on the Spring Equinox Shelter in Place If You’re Anything Like Me The Allegory of the Pizzas A Portrait Made of Seaweed The Oracle of Delphi Dream Collage Be Someone Who Would Have Been Burned at the Stake 500 Years Ago II. Elegy for My Father During the Days of Awe Epithalamium Culpable Marc Chagall Mountain Concordance Loss Isn’t So Important Jewish Town Ulcerative Colitis Deep Remission Lower Soul Self-Portrait as Demolished Supermarket Heat Unthinkable and Cold Unimaginable Missed Flight Ghazal with Malbec, No Cigarettes Hauntology Moon Phasery Communique from the Fortunate Islands The Pomegranate Year Three Years, Two Months and Twelve Days After My Father Dies Overseas Self-Portrait as Prisoner with Balalaika Sublunary Unboxing Day Winter Solstice If Not From Dust Disassembly Line III. Whatever It Takes Je Ne Regrette Rien Communique from Atlantis Under Lockdown The Invention of Memory Bloorcourt Anti-Elegy Modern Miracles The Fish Trees Cloud Concordance Yes And Subterranean Against “The Road Not Taken” If You Dwell on a Grave While Out of Breath Sea Grief Marriage Tales Minor Worries Fast Backward Today the Universe Can Be Viewed by Members Only Marvelosity New Year’s Lament Living Will Between Falling to Earth and Floating in Space Notes Acknowledgments

Reviews

""These poems are moving sublunary folk tales, a contemporary oral tradition of grief and wonder, surprise and bemused celebration. They speak of memory, the steadfast alchemy of self-awareness, of naming, of weaving a cloth of relations with the world and those one loves. They have the steady and certain strength of craft and curiosity. Life as we experience it is beautiful and strange, a painful and tender paradox. These are poems that see. We are seen."" Gary Barwin, author of The Comedian’s Book of the Dead ""In Sublunary, themes in Richter’s previous work, like memory, grief, and absence, re-emerge—this time woven in with references to mythology and Jewish folklore. Always present: the struggles of holding life’s strangeness alongside its joyful and bewildering elements."" Jonathan Rothman, Canadian Jewish News, December 2025 “In Sublunary, a collection as elegant as it is insightful, Richter answers the question, ‘What rhymes with crow’s feet, / girl’s grit, owl’s flight, crone’s teeth?' A hard-won wisdom resounds through these bespoke lyric poems that glitter like crystal trees, nourished by roots of blood. While holding space to elegize what has been taken and lost, Richter never succumbs to easy bitterness, but remains open to wonder—‘passionately attached to the world' and all ‘its peculiar mouthfeel.'’’ Kayla Czaga, author of Midway

""These poems are moving sublunary folk tales, a contemporary oral tradition of grief and wonder, surprise and bemused celebration. They speak of memory, the steadfast alchemy of self-awareness, of naming, of weaving a cloth of relations with the world and those one loves. They have the steady and certain strength of craft and curiosity. Life as we experience it is beautiful and strange, a painful and tender paradox. These are poems that see. We are seen."" Gary Barwin, author of The Comedian’s Book of the Dead

Author Information

Lisa Richter is an award-winning poet, writer, and educator. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Closer to Where We Began and Nautilus and Bone, winner of the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry (US), and the Robert Kroetsch Award, among other honours. Her work has been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, named a finalist for a National Magazine Award, and has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies, including Best Canadian Poetry 2024, Plenitude, The Fiddlehead, and The Malahat Review, among others. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and makes her home in Tkaronto/Toronto, where she is currently working on a hybrid-genre memoir.

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