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  • $18.95

    ISBN: 9781772015164 | Paperback

    96 pages | Pub. Date: 20230517
    6 W × 9 H × .5 D inches
    featured | Poetry | Bisac: POE005050
    Rights: WORLD

    Or find Song & Dread in your local bookstore

Song & Dread
By Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

COVID meditations from literary phenom Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

Rife with the paradoxical forces of boredom and intensity, the early days of COVID-19 passed under an inescapable pall. The poems of Song & Dread seek quietude, order, refuge, and space within that shroud. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared. Here Otoniya J. Okot Bitek becomes a record keeper, observing the contradictory, symbiotic relationship between the quotidian and the extraordinary. These works are of their time, while remembering an existence outside it. With a keen eye, Okot Bitek documents the ways the strange can become normalized when there is no other option.

“The poems and poem of Song & Dread loops and swirls through language, song and thread, returning regularly to earlier points, allowing the structure of the extended sequence to propel that much further, forward.”—rob mclennan, periodicities

By Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry, 100 Days (University of Alberta 2016) won the 2017 IndieFab Book of the Year Award for poetry and the 2017 Glenna Lushei Prize for African Poetry.

Read more about Otoniya J. Okot Bitek

news | 2023-04-26
R. Kolewe and Otoniya J. Okot Bitek Book Launch in Toronto!

…and unweaving an awe-inducing lyric spell. Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a powerful reflection …

news | 2023-04-25
Four Talonbooks on Ms. Magazine's List of Best Poetry Collections of the Year

…nikihci-âniskotâpân by Wanda John-Kehewin , Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek , HARROWINGS by Cecily …

news | 2023-04-06
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek’s “Song & Dread” Reviewed in periodicities

…Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek may have just launched … the sum of their parts. The poems and poem of Song & Dread loops and swirls through language, song and …

news | 2023-03-27
“Song & Dread” has Landed!

…Hot off the press! Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is here and ready to win … passed under an inescapable pall. The poems of Song & Dread seek quietude, order, refuge, and space within …

news | 2023-03-14
Happy Pi Day!

…This year, we have an extra reason to celebrate: Song & Dread , the new poetry collection by Otoniya J. Okot … now they leave no footprints” Pick up a copy of Song & Dread for a sweet Pi Day treat. …

news | 2023-03-09
You’re Invited to Talonbooks’ Spring 2023 Launch!

…nikihci-âniskotâpân by Wanda John-Kehewin , Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek , Refabulations: …

news | 2023-03-01
4 Talonbooks Titles on CBC’s List of Must-Read Spring Poetry Titles

…pakosêyimow, nikihci-âniskotâpân , Song & Dread , Uiesh / Somewhere , and A Net of Momentary … personal experience, and Indigenous resilience. Song & Dread by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek observes the …

news | 2023-02-01
Black History Month

…delighted to announce that the poetry collection Song & Dread is forthcoming from the amazing poet and scholar … and Gender Studies Departments. The poems in Song & Dread meditate on the symbiotic, paradoxical …