Sumptuary Laws, published in 2012, was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award for a best first book of poetry in Canada, named a National Post best book of poetry in 2012, and a ‘must-read’ book of poetry at CBC Books.

“Her phrasal rhythm is impeccable and her mastery of style, whether lyric, surreal or conceptual, is apparent...introducing a stunning new voice in Canadian poetry.” -Jury citation, Gerald Lampert Award nomination

Sumptuary Laws was a favourite book of 2012 for the Poetry Editor at the National Post.

Sumptuary Laws was named a ‘must read’ book of poetry for 2012 at CBC Books.

"Reading the book, I kept having flashes of Wallace Stevens and John Ashbery: there’s a similar nonchalant brio at work here and, above all, the same loopy delight in words"
-Susan Glickman, on the Vehicule Press  blog

"Witty and metaphysically inventive"
-David Wheatley on the Harriet blog, Poetry magazine

Eduardo C. Corral features Sumptuary Laws on the Best American Poetry blog

REVIEWS

"An urbane, surrealist-influenced, lexically ingenious whip-smartness shot through with a beating-heart desire." -Stewart Cole The Urge  

"Collisions of language and metaphor are so daring, the jumps between image and image so precipitous." -Lorraine York Canadian Literature

"Vibrant and full of fun extravagance in language, akin to a brilliant and wildly eccentric classmate" -Winnie Khaw Philadelphia Review of Books

"Matuk has a deep command of language and is unafraid to draw from all its resources to represent the tangible happenstances of our object heart." -Catherine Owen, Marrow Reviews

Rob McLennan reviews Sumptuary Laws

Resisting Canada: An Anthology of Poetry

Edited by Nyla Matuk

Introduction by Nyla Matuk

Resisting Canada LAUNCHED in Toronto November 28th, 2019, 7 pm at Knife | Fork | Book, Artscape Youngplace 180 Shaw Street (Mezzanine) and in Montreal on December 1st, 2019 12:30 pm at 4th Space, J.W. McConnell Building, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West

Cover art: David Drummond

‘An invaluable and provocative compilation of oppositional poems’ The Literary Review of Canada

Resisting Canada gathers together poets for a conversation bigger than poetic trends. The book's organizing principle is Canada--the Canada that established residential schools; the Canada grappling with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; the Canada that has been visible in its welcome of Syrian refugees, yet the not-always-tolerant place where the children of those refugees will grow up; the Canada eager to re-establish its global leadership on the environment while struggling to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty on resource-rich land and enabling further colonization of that land. In the face of global conflicts due to climate change, scarcity, mass migrations, and the rise of xenophobic populisms, Canada still works with a surface understanding of its democratic values--both at their noblest and most deceptive.

The work included in Resisting Canada--by celebrated poets such as Lee Maracle, Jordan Abel, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Louise Bernice Halfe, Michael Prior, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson--addresses, among other things, Indigenous agency, cultural belonging, environmental anxieties, and racial privilege. These poems ask us to judge and resist a statecraft that refuses to acknowledge past and present wrongs.

Think of Resisting Canada as a poetic letter to Canada's politicians and leaders.

Released September 20, 2019

REVIEWS

“[R]eimagines the mountains of Canada’s literary landscape.” -Sarah-Jean Krahn, Canadian Literature

“This is not an anthology of cheeky bon mots about the scoundrels in Parliament, nor is it too interested in relitigating the nationalist project of Canadian literature” -Bardia Sinaee Quill and Quire

“One hopes that a collection such as this would be taught in schools, both for the writing and the content.” -rob mcLennan blog

“Matuk’s introduction itself is a manifesto-like call to action, with an expansive overview and contextualization of historical and present injustices” -Marcela Huerta profiles Resisting Canada for the cover story in The Montreal Review of Books Fall 2019.

Resisting Canada one of the ‘best of Montreal books for 2019.’ See more in the Montreal Gazette. 21 Dec. 2019

“An invaluable and provocative compilation of oppositional poems” -Nicholas Bradley in The Literary Review of Canada March 2020

'Matuk has the keen-eyed, phrase-making brilliance of Marianne Moore...this is a sensuous, bold and mercurial collection.'  Times Literary Supplement

Stranger is a favourite on "The Best Books of 2016" in The Walrus

REVIEWS

Sarah-Jean Krahn Canadian Literature 

Bardia Sinaee ARC Poetry 

David Wheatley Times Literary Supplement 

Jim Johnstone Maisonneuve 

Nick Thran Event 

Shannon Webb-Campbell Montreal Review of Books