Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin (born 1984) is a writer, critic, professor, poet and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, Lubrin now lives in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.^[1]

Canisia Lubrin
Born	1984 (age 40–41) St. Lucia
Occupation	Poet, critic, editor, professor
Education	York University University of Guelph
Notable works	Voodoo Hypothesis (2017); The Dyzgraphxst (2020); Code Noir (2024)

Life

Lubrin was born in St. Lucia and studied in Canada, completing a bachelor's degree at York University and a graduate degree in creative writing at the University of Guelph.^[2][3]

Career

Her first collection of poems, Voodoo Hypothesis, was published in 2017 by Wolsak & Wynn. Voodoo Hypothesis rejects the contemporary and historical systems that paint black people as inferior.^[4][5] The book also addresses the legacy of slavery in Lubrin's native Caribbean.^[6] Voodoo Hypothesis was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. In addition Voodoo Hypothesis was named one of 2017's best books in Canadian poetry by CBC Books and one of the 10 "must-read" books of 2017 by the League of Canadian Poets.^[7][8] CBC Books also named Lubrin a Black Canadian writer to watch in 2018.^[9]

Lubrin's short story "Into Timmins" is anthologized in The Unpublished City: Vol. I, edited by Dionne Brand, finalist for the 2018 Toronto Book Awards.

In addition to her career as a poet, Lubrin is Assistant Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. She was appointed the Inaugural Shaftesbury Writer in Residence of Victoria College at the University of Toronto and worked as an editor with Buckrider Books, an imprint of Canadian independent press Wolsak & Wynn from 2018 to 2021.^[2][10] She was also a director of the Pivot Reading Series, a biweekly poetry reading series in Toronto.^[11] For 2017–2018, Lubrin was a Writer-in-Residence with Poetry In Voice.^[12] In 2019, Lubrin was a Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at Queen's University.^[13] In 2021, publisher McClelland & Stewart announced Lubrin as their new poetry editor.^[14]

Lubrin's second collection of poetry, The Dyzgraphxst, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2020.

In 2021, Lubrin was named one of two winners, alongside Natalie Scenters-Zapico, of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in poetry.^[15] Dionne Brand was also named a winner of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in the fiction category, the first time in the history of that award that two Canadians were named as laureates in the same year.^[15]

The Dyzgraphxst was shortlisted for four book prizes, including the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry at the 2020 Governor General's Awards,^[16] and for the 2020 Trillium Book Award for Poetry.^[17] The book also won four awards, including the overall OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature,^[18] the Derek Walcott Prize^[19] and the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.^[20]

In 2024, Lubrin’s first book of fiction, Code Noir, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, with a US edition released by Soft Skull Press in 2025. The book was the winner of the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction^[21] and the 2025 Danuta Gleed Literary Award.^[22] It was shortlisted for the Writers' Trust of Canada's Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize,^[23] the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2024 Governor General's Awards,^[24] the Trillium Book Award, the Balcones Prize, and the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Literature of the Fantastic.

Works

Poetry

• Augur. Gap Riot Press, 2017. ISBN 9781775056119
• Voodoo Hypothesis. Buckrider Books, 2017. ISBN 9781928088424
• The Dyzgraphxst. McClelland & Stewart, 2020. ISBN 9780771048692

Fiction

• Code Noir. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2024. ISBN 9780735282216