Nought by Julie Joosten

Nought, a new collection of poetry from Governor General’s Literary Award finalist Julie Joosten, explores the intersections of body, identity, and love. These poems, in all their passions, inhabit the unfastened “and” of capacious loves and allegiances, refusing to choose between them; in Nought, thought comes alive through the materiality of body and experience, neurology and metaphysics entangled with sentient physicality—skin, eyes, mouths. Throughout, Joosten grapples with form and rhythm, crafting work that is intimately perceptive; that pulses and teems with life.

In Nought, experience—from resistance to love and all points between—is constantly surprising and utterly enchanting. It will alter your perception and construction of, and attention to, yourself and the surrounding world.

Praise for Nought:

“This tenderly porous poetry is a philosophical excursion into ancient and still-vast questions: how are dogs, grasses, crickets, anemones always becoming thought?  Joosten composes a phenomenology of care, brings me to the sill of an attentive stillness where I am free to not be myself. It’s a little frightening and a little exhilarating. But in these poems I am welcomed and supported by the shared minutiae of perceiving.” —Lisa Robertson

Press Coverage:

Most Anticipated: Spring 2020 Poetry Preview —49th Shelf

29 Works of Canadian Poetry to Watch for in Spring 2020 —CBC Books

Periodicities: virtual reading series #17: Julie Joosten —Periodicities: a Journal of Poetry and Poetics

“The poems that make up Nought are crafted into a single, delicate lyric thread; a suite of suites, held together as a long poem on physicality, connection and attachment.” —rob mclennan’s blog

A ‘best of’ list of 2020 Canadian poetry books —rob mclennan, dusie

“Joosten’s voice recollects Lisa Robertson’s: a sharply witty inner monologue or conversation with various psychic selves; and restless play with genre and form.” —John Wall Barger, Event Magazine

Julie Joosten, from “Love Poem” —Adam Sol, How a Poem Moves

Limbs, Limits, Love: A review of Nought —Neil Surkan, Canadian Literature

Julie Joosten’s first book, Light Light, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, and the Goldie Award. She won the Malahat Review Long Poem Contest in 2011. She lives and writes in Toronto on the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.