Shane Neilson -- Book Launch
Saturday Apr 29 2017 7:00 pm, Winnipeg, Grant Park in the Atrium
Winnipeg launch of Dysphoria (The Porcupine's Quill) featuring guest readers Lori Cayer and Maurice Mierau. Co-presented by Contemporary Verse 2.
This poetry collection fearlessly confronts mental illness from all sides, taking the perspective of patient, doctor and observer. It explodes with love and longing, passion and fear. It wails to the strains of Percy Sledge and rides alongside Mad Max—crazy, but with a good guy’s badge. It suffers the indignities of therapeutic measures and faces the helplessness of a parent witnessing his child’s suffering. In Neilson’s own words, Dysphoria ‘throws acid from half-glasses but drinks some first to be fair.’
Shane Neilson is a poet and physician who, in addition to several collections of poetry, has published in the genres of memoir, short fiction, biography and literary criticism. He is currently a fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, a Vanier Scholar at McMaster University and editor for Victoria, B.C. publisher Frog Hollow Press. Though he lives in Oakville, Ontario, all of his work is rooted in rural New Brunswick.
Lori Cayer is the author of three award-winning books of poetry: Attenuations of Force (a finalist for the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie), Stealing Mercury (recipient of the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book in Manitoba and a finalist for the 2004 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award), and Dopamine Blunder. In 2005 Lori was awarded the 2005 John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer. By day Lori is a virtual editorial assistant for two scientific research journals.
Maurice Mierau is the author of Detachment: An Adoption Memoir, which won the 2016 Kobzar Literary Award and the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. He has published three books of poems, including Autobiographical Fictions and ReLit Award winner Fear Not. He was born in Indiana and grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas, and Saskatchewan. Maurice now lives in Winnipeg where he works as a writer and editor.
See:
Dysphoria
- Shane Neilson 
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A heart-rending poetic commentary on the pain, anxiety and dissatisfaction that go hand-in-hand with mental illness, and on the complex and emotional interplay between doctor, patient and outsider.
