Bonememory

Our memories, and the memories of others, live in our bones. These poems document personal, intergenerational, and collective trauma—and the astonishment of survival.

Memory is stored in the body. Memory sprouts in families and is transmitted from one generation to the next. Memory imprints at the level of bone. In Bonememory, Anna Veprinska bares down to the marrow.

An expert lyric poet writing at the intersection of memory and pain, Veprinska fearlessly traces intergenerational histories of struggle and survival. This collection confronts the indelible marks left by immigration, the Holocaust, Canadian settler-colonialism, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Amid these various upheavals, Veprinska finds herself within her own body, facing chronic illness and navigating disability.

Bonememory in an investigation of history and memory studded with moments of insight and revelation. Written with a keen eye and close attention, these poems balance lyrical tenderness and formal experimentation, never forgetting that extending into another can be an act of care and an act of invasion.

About the Author

Anna Veprinska is the author of Empathy in Contemporary Poetry after Crisis. She was a finalist in the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest, has been shortlisted for the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence, and received an Honourable Mention from the Memory Studies Association First Book Award. She is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary.