Virtual Launch for ZIPLESS, a Poetry Chapbook by Catherine Lewis

"Catherine Lewis’ Zipless wears femme armour. These poems are fortified by Valentino stilettos and sundresses in August’s heat. The thick-skinned and vivid voice firmly leads the reader to fertility clinics, first dates and Pride parties. Zipless leads us further still—into the complex positionality of a mature polyamorous Asian bisexual navigating a queer world that is often too narrowly-focused to see her multitudes. Lewis widens the landscape of queer poetics, punching 4-inch-deep heel marks into the ground as she goes."

- Amber Dawn, author of My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems and Sodom Road Exit

Zipless can be purchased at 845 Press.

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CATHERINE LEWIS is a bisexual Chinese Canadian writer and poet. She was a finalist in The Fiddlehead’s and The Humber Literary Review’s/Creative Nonfiction Collective Society’s creative nonfiction contests in 2021. A graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University and of the Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, she attended the Banff Centre Literary Arts residency “Poetry, Politics and Embodiment” in Fall 2021. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Catherine lives in Vancouver on the traditional unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Zipless is her debut poetry chapbook.

Catch Catherine on Twitter or Instagram at @cat_writes_604 or visit her website www.catherinewriter.com.

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This evening's online event will feature special guests Yong Nan Kim, Jacqueline Willcocks, and Zofia Rose.

YONG NAN KIM is a writer, poet and storyteller who also writes Korean folktales and ghost stories for her daughter and seven nieces and nephews. Her memoir titled ‘My Year Without Books,’ a work in progress, is a collection of poems about a Korean child’s coming-of-age in Paraguay and Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s. She is a graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. Yong has worked as a translator, interpreter and lecturer in linguistics, translation and interpretation in the US and Canada. When not reading while walking, she likes to hike, snowshoe and learn new dance moves. Yong is a US/Canadian dual citizen who lives in Vancouver, BC.

JACQUELINE WILLCOCKS is a writer and poet originally from Calgary, Alberta. She is a graduate of the Writer’s Studio certificate program at Simon Fraser University. Her poems have appeared in Line & Lens and emerge 19. A former dancer and current Somatic Healer, her work is decidedly feminine and ruthless in its quest to find truth and beauty in the dark corners of the human experience. She makes her home with her husband and two children on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. Follow Jacqui on Instagram at @jacqui_willcocks or visit her website www.jacquiwillcocks.com.

ZOFIA ROSE is a singer/songwriter, poet and interdisciplinary performer. A graduate of the Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, her poetry has been published in emerge 19, PRISM, Room Magazine, and Salt Chuck City Review. Zofia is Polish and Carrier First Nation, and she resides in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, where she can be found following the muse. Check out the first single from her upcoming EP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBQEiWhOvXo

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"In this brief volume, Catherine Lewis articulates the emergence of writer and lesbian from the burnt offerings of her intended ordinary life. When the expected abandons the narrator, her eloquent quest for joy begins. Affirming, moving, intelligent poetry. Open your heart and read."

- Joanne Arnott, author of A Night for the Lady

"In Zipless, Catherine Lewis invites us to stride many miles in a pair of Valentino heels. By crafting a poetics around experiences of failed fertility treatments, dating queer in a middle-aged, racialized body, and lack of cultural and ‘intrafamilial consensus,’ she carefully ‘unzips’ the ways we can attempt to love somebody, or ourselves, and how to continue to hope when those avenues lead to an end without closure. Poignantly heartbreaking and tenacious, this debut is a courageous embrace with honest wisdoms."

- Isabella Wang, author of Pebble Swing