Poetry

Catherine Graham's poetry has appeared in literary journals in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland and in several anthologies.  Some of her work has also been translated into Chinese.

Publications

To learn more about each collection, please click on the book covers below.

Winterkill

Insomniac Press, 2010

“Catherine Graham's new collection Winterkill completes the trilogy that includes her critically acclaimed previous books Pupa (2003) and The Red Element (2008). Her poems always navigate the difficult paths between grief and memory, between intimacy and strangeness, with a disarming, surefooted grace. These are her most powerful, most affirming works to date.”
  — Paul Vermeersch, poetry editor for Insomniac Press

The Red Element

Insomniac Press, 2008

“...Catherine Graham is a poet of the intimate voice, the treasured, internalised experience...”
  — Parameter Magazine (UK)

“In her stunning new volume of poems, The Red Element, Catherine Graham distills the whirling ambiguities of memories into gorgeous, mysterious single images, making the short poem triumph again on the Canadian literary landscape. With the dense, new energy of The Red Element, where all the poems form a bravura lyrical sequence, Graham proves herself as one of Canada's premier younger poets.”
  — Molly Peacock

“These poems are fine works. Choose any set of lines: “By the end of mid-October…. / Off come the leaves. / They whip through the world as birds.”
  — George Elliott Clarke, The Chronicle Herald

“...more goose bumps per page than any collection in recent memory. Sticking to the poetic doctrine less is more, this collection is a tour de force in minimalism. Her steady hand and firm voice are breathtaking. They are empowered images, graceful sparks.”
  — Angela Hibbs, Broken Pencil

“These poems are sharp, imaginative, and never cutesy... Graham’s poetry is especially admirable in its combination of accessibility, urgency, and imagination, making The Red Element one of my favourite poetry collections of the year.”
  — Hannah Stephenson, Gloss

“Having carved out her particular niche on the Canlit map with her last two offerings, The Watch and Pupa, The Red Element is another groundbreaking delight.”
  — Kane X. Faucher, Scene Magazine

“...it is worthwhile to let The Red Element (Insomniac Press, 2008) suck you into its vividly morbid world.”
  — Matrix

“The oneiric surrealism engendered there is highly effective; it harnesses narrative purpose and stanza order in tension to the seemingly random menace of the poems’ imagery.”
  — Arc Poetry Magazine

Order The Red Element

Pupa

Insomniac Press, 2003

“The poems in Pupa, her first collection, are spiky little meditations so taut and tightly controlled they are almost claustrophobic...The poems' effect is all the more intense as a result.... This impressive collection should put her on the Canlit map.”
  — The Toronto Star

 “An underrated poet; the super-compressed lyrics of this book make a most unusual music and are quite convincing treatments of grief.”
  — Zachariah Wells

“The best advice that I can give on this book is to go read it, let Graham explain Graham to you.”
  — Grey Borders

Order Pupa

The Watch

Abbey Press, 1998

“...dives sensually into experience and enables the reader to follow. She writes what happens so that it happens again. It's an appealing collection, full of telling and specific detail.”
  — Poetry Ireland Review 61

“Graham has much promise as a poet, and makes one eager to read a full collection of her work.”
  — Nessa O'Mahoney, InCognito, Dublin