Name: Gillian Sze Book Launch
Start: 2025-11-02T14:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-11-02T16:00:00-05:00
Location: 2220 McGill College Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H3A3P9

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞 and 𝐄𝐂𝐖 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 present a Book Launch for 𝑨𝒏 𝑶𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆, 𝑨 𝑺𝒚𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 by 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐳𝐞.
Join us as poet 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐳𝐞 reads from, signs, and discusses her latest book of poetry, 𝑨𝒏 𝑶𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆, 𝑨 𝑺𝒚𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.
Admission is free.
Refreshments will be served.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊:
he latest book by Gillian Sze, author of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award–winning book 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌.
This prosimetrical work is a meditation on motherhood, language, and art. The central speaker witnesses the earliest utterances of her child and launches into a poetic inquiry of words themselves, asking, How to measure one’s mouth by its words? The speaker seeks an answer amidst the language that surrounds her — words misspoken, mispronounced, remembered, unwritten — and, in doing so, struggles with signification and significance.
Each prose poem in the five-part collection darts between the many meanings of “fit” — as in “a sudden burst of emotion” or “to be the right size and shape,” and the archaic “fytte” (a section of a poem). A text becomes an open mouth, a square day of a calendar, or a bare fragment of a narrative. The final section of the book is an intimate and ekphrastic engagement with the work of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. Drawn to Hammershøi’s paintings of the empty rooms of his apartment, the speaker recognizes a familiar space of art’s insistence.
𝑨𝒏 𝑶𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆, 𝑨 𝑺𝒚𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 details a period of maternal and artistic transformation.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑:
Gillian Sze is the author of multiple poetry books and picture books. Her book of poems and essays, 𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 𝑵𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌, received the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. She lives in Montreal, QC, where she teaches creative writing and literature at Concordia University.