#TPQ5: KATIE O’BRIEN

even this page is white – Vivek Shraya

Vivek’s debut collection of poetry was my introduction to more political, anti-racist poetics, and I am so grateful for it. I love the intimacy and ferocity of the poems in this book.

Ladybird, Ladybird – Amy Leblanc

I am so inspired by Amy’s creepy, delicate poetry. This collection does a deep dive into folklore and myth, rewriting the stories we grew up with and centering the powerful feminine folks within.

Kalimba – Petero Kalulé

This collection is so musical, which I absolutely adore. Petero’s use of language, grammar, and punctuation is reminiscent of e.e. cummings, deliciously delivered for a radical contemporary readership.

pressure cooker love bomb – Sharanpal Ruprai

I can’t get enough of the recipe-poems in Sharanpal’s second poetry collection, packed with sexuality, race, hashtags, and gender. I am absolutely obsessed.

Whisk – Yoko’s Dogs

I picked up this collection knowing nothing about it because I absolutely love the publisher, Pedlar Press. This collaboratively-written collection is refreshing and reflective, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.


katie o’brien is a poet, community worker, queer activist, and Netflix enthusiast originally from St. John’s, Ktaqamkuk, on unceded Beothuk land. a peal of thunder, a moment of (The Blasted Tree, 2019) is their third chapbook. katie dislikes lying, sings a lot, and doesn’t kill bugs.

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