Coit by Chantal Neveu, translated by Angela Carr

In Coït, minimalist traces of language cling to a series of mapped channels. Every channel is a tenuous archive of choreographed gestures recorded by the poet from the edges of dance stages. Here, spaces hold words and words hold movement. A book marked by inexhaustible passages, this exquisite English language translation of Québécoise poet Chantal Neveu’s fourth book invites the reader to collaborate in the making of both texts and spaces. Here, Coït refers not only to coitus but to the act of moving in unison. Conceptual and intimate, Coït is a consensual experiment that exceeds the form of the book.

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Praise for Coït:

“For the dancer to equal the dance is to restate the Aristotelean I = I. Chantal Neveu belies this blind equation by literalizing the pas de plus that both comprises and compromises the nothing and everything that makes us move. Transcribed from rehearsal talk—though there is no other kind—Coït is, like the bodies it casts, at once familiar, at once a surprise” —Vanessa Place

“This is that rare book of poetry that makes you want to give it to everyone you know, because it affirms that precise relation, that knowledge, as embodied, contingent on distance, ephemeral—an electrifying site of potentiality. Dear Chantal Neveu: thank you for returning us to our gestures, to the edges of our bodies, of language, our given prosceniums, ducts. Dear Angela Carr: thank you for affirming, via translation, a book that is so uncommonly generous… that affirms (like translation) the world with the world.” —Christian Hawkey

Press Coverage:

Angela Carr speaks about her workspace and creative process at Open Book Toronto

Chantal Neveu is a writer and an interdisciplinary artist. She is the author of the books Une Spectaculaire influence (2010), Coït (2010) and mentale (2008). Interdisciplinary textual projects include Èdres followed by Èdres | Dehors (2005) and Je suis venue faire l’amour. Coït is her first collection to be translated into English. She lives in Montreal.

Angela Carr is a poet and translator. She is the author of two poetry collections, most recently The Rose Concordance (2009), and several chapbooks, including Risk Accretions.