Her Paraphernalia: On Motherlines, Sex, Blood, Loss & Selfies by Margaret Christakos

How does a contemporary woman write a life’s umbilical attachments to the lives around her, lives formed in and by other histories and times, relations living and dying and dead? How does she see what remains her own, despite midlife’s losses?

Widely acclaimed for her poetry, Canadian writer Margaret Christakos’s new intergenre collection is a love song to her mother and daughter.

Formed of ten intimate études that move from considerations of mothering, sex and photography to settler bloodlines, erasure and divorce, Her Paraphernalia profoundly embodies the feelings of living as a woman and a mother in all its tumult and precocity and promise.

At once daring, erotic and original, Her Paraphernalia explores the beauty of the selfie, menopause, daughters, lust, solo travel, depression, the death of a parent, the writing life and women’s transgenerational vitality, among other interwoven themes.

Watch the BookThug Author Interview with Margaret Christakos:

Listen to the Book Launch:

Watch the Book Launch and Reading:

Press Coverage:

Quill and Quire Spring 2016 Preview Selection

49th Shelf Most Anticipated Spring 2016 Non-Fiction Selection

“It’s visceral in both senses: radically grounded in the female body (at 50) and intensely emotional, often erotic.” —Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail

“If you’re looking for an honest, beautifully written read about love, loss, familial relationships and everything in between, look no further than Her Paraphernalia. ”
—Leslie LeRoux, Vagabond City

Her Paraphernalia: On Motherlines, Sex/Blood/Loss & Selfies is a book composed as part sketchbook, travel diary and lyric essay. Christakos really is one of Canada’s most remarkable and underrated poets, and I’m often more than a bit intimidated by how fiercely intelligent and articulate she is.” —rob mclennan, Drunken Bloat blog

“Her Paraphernalia: On Motherlines, Sex/Blood/Loss & Selfies is not only composed as a portrait/selfie, but one explored at a very particular point in the author’s life, working to ground, and reaffirm, herself before any possibility of eroding. Hers is a clarity hard-fought and hard-won, and gets to the very core of genealogy and the self, and how we are affected by those who came before us, through what we choose and what we can’t help but become.” —rob mclenann’s blog

“Through a tactfully crafted collection of literary and visual records, Christakos courageously exposes herself with the effect of not only normalizing but also celebrating the complexities of womanhood.” —Emma Croll-Baehre, Poetry London

More Orange: Margaret Christakos’ Her Paraphernalia, an Interview with Julie Joosten —The Town Crier

The Lucky Seven with Margaret Christakos —Open Book Toronto

(Women’s) Writer’s Block: Margaret Christakos —All Lit Up

Queen’s Mob Review of 2016 —rob mclennan, Queen’s Mob

Margaret Christakos has published nine collections of poetry, including Multitudes (2013), Welling (2010; A Globe100 book), Sooner (2005; a Pat Lowther Memorial Award nominee), and Excessive Love Prostheses (2002; winner of a ReLit Award), as well as a novel, Charisma (2000; a Trillium Book Award nominee). Christakos designed and facilitated Influency: A Toronto Poetry Salon from 2006 to 2012 and was Canada Council Writer in Residence at the University of Windsor (2004–05).