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  • $16.95

    ISBN: 9780889228542 | Paperback

    128 pages | Pub. Date: 20130515
    8.5 W × 6 H × .25 D inches
    Backlist | Poetry | Bisac: POE011000
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find DOWNVERSE in your local bookstore

In this quick-witted collection of poems, Nikki Reimer mines the language of new media – hashtags, YouTube comments, Twitter updates – to defamiliarize the very substance of modern life: the constellation of media-enforced ideals that barrage our newsfeeds, daily commutes to #work, and (mostly online) excursions to the (Apple) store. #nuffsaid
DOWNVERSE soothes the oversaturated reader. A natural translator, Reimer writes for anyone who has felt overwhelmed by the phrase “never read the comments.” Reimer has read all of the comments; paying close attention to musicality and her own poetic process, she guides found text into whiplike stanzas with original typos intact.
Conscious of its birthplace, DOWNVERSE crafts both an ode to and an elegy for Vancouver’s middle-class, Gen-Y, millennial angst, and even Vancouver itself – not the physical place, but rather the idea of #Vancouver, presented through images plastered over billboards and stamped into Special Edition footwear. In its shifty way, Reimer’s text alternates between the voices of Vancouver’s youth- and consumer-driven populace, asking the question, “What happens when The Market is the Way, the Truth, and the Life?”

“The poems in DOWNVERSE are centered in rage, boredom, grief, confusion and despair. Reimer displays a mistrust in the poem, while concurrently stretching the scope of what just might be possible.”
– The Small Press Book Review

By Nikki Reimer

Nikki Reimer creates poetry, essays, and multimedia artworks that interrogate capitalist structures and consider the variegated forms that grief can take.Her books of poetry include My Heart Is a Rose Manhattan and DOWNVERSE (Talonbooks), as well as [sic] (Frontenac House), which was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award.

Read more about Nikki Reimer


news | 2017-08-16
Talon poets in Contemporary Verse 2: Convergence

…Derksen’s The Vestiges (2013), Nikki Reimer’s DOWNVERSE (2014), Catriona Strang’s Corked (2014), Jordan …


news | 2016-04-29
Tomorrow: Authors for Indies Day across Canada!

…Life Books in Calgary from 3–5 PM, and her book DOWNVERSE will be there too! See the tweeted evidence: …


news | 2015-07-27
“Collective Grievances” – Reimer and fitzpatrick in Canadian Literature

…Nikki Reimer’s DOWNVERSE and ryan fitzpatrick’s Fortified Castles, both …


news | 2015-04-10
Horses Records’s Talonbooks

…Abel’s new Un/inhabited to Nikki Reimer’s recent DOWNVERSE , and other favourites. Look for a designated …


news | 2015-01-07
Our Best of 2014, According to the Year-End Lists

…Poplars, Natalie Simpson’s Thrum, Nikki Reimer’s DOWNVERSE , and ryan fitzpatrick’s Fortified Castles. See … for the Winnipeg Free Press, and among them were DOWNVERSE and Thrum. He also gave Fortified Castles an …


news | 2014-11-03
Two New Poetry Reviews: From the Poplars & DOWNVERSE

…contractions and contradictions of Nikki Reimer’s DOWNVERSE . From the former, a highlight: From the Poplars …


news | 2014-06-18
Video: Talon’s Spring 2014 Poetry Launch in Vancouver

…), Natalie Simpson ( Thrum ), and Nikki Reimer ( DOWNVERSE ). The launch was hosted by two 2013 Talon poets, …


news | 2014-05-01
Meta-Talon: Launched and Loving It

…Corked, From the Poplars, DOWNVERSE, The World Afloat, and Thrum Four fantastic poets …


news | 2014-04-15
Hot Off the Presses! Thrum, God and the Indian, DOWNVERSE, and From the Poplars

…poetry has arrived! Thrum by Natalie Simpson, DOWNVERSE by Nikki Reimer, and From the Poplars by Cecily …


news | 2014-04-01
It’s Poetry Month!

…things in store this month: pre-order Corked , Downverse , From the Poplars , or Thrum today; they are due …