A limited number of tickets are available for the launch of the latest collection of poems by Joy Kogawa.
From the Lost and Found Department is a profound work of spare, trenchant, and haunting poems that lets us stay with the quietest qualities of beauty and the sublime.
This essential volume brings together thrilling new work with selected poems from The Splintered Moon (1967), A Choice of Dreams (1974), Jericho Road (1977), Woman In the Woods (1985), and A Garden of Anchors: Selected Poems (2003).
Kogawa’s poems here are evidence that our every vulnerability can open into vast channels of grace.
Following an introduction by Vancouver Poet Laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, Joy Kogawa will read from the collection.
Ticket price includes 1 copy of From the Lost and Found Department.
Additional books will be available for sale and signing.
“In From the Lost and Found Department we encounter a poet’s vast witness of and homage to the world. In the aftermath of unspeakable violence and cruelty, Joy Kogawa pulls us aside and says, Look here, what matters are the small fish, the mundane kindnesses, the love that remains despite catastrophes. Kogawa is a writer who has powerfully impacted Canadian discourses, and her latest book is a necessary addition to any reader’s collection.”
—Tsering Yangzom Lama, author of We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
Joy Kogawa is best known as the author of Obasan (1981), which is based on Joy and her family’s forced relocation from Vancouver during the Second World War when she was six years old. Joy’s other books for adults include Itsuka (1992, published as Emily Kato in 2005), The Rain Ascends (1995), and Gently to Nagasaki (2016). Her works for children are Naomi’s Road (1986, 2005) and Naomi’s Tree (2009). Since 1967, Joy has also published several poetry collections, including A Choice of Dreams (1974), Jericho Road (1977), and A Garden of Anchors (2003). Among her many honours, Joy has received an Order of Canada (1986), an Order of British Columbia (2006), and, from the Japanese Government, an Order of the Rising Sun (2010) for “her contribution to the understanding and preservation of Japanese Canadian history.”
Fiona Tinwei Lam is Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, 2022-2024. Serving as a champion for poetry, language, and the arts, the Poet Laureate represents the City during readings and public poetry events. Fiona Tinwei Lam is the author of Intimate Distances (finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Prize), Enter the Chrysanthemum, and Odes & Laments. She also authored the illustrated children’s book, The Rainbow Rocket.
Her poetry and prose have been published in over 45 anthologies (Canada, Hong Kong, and the US), including The Best Canadian Poetry in English (2010, 10th anniversary Best of the Best edition 2017, and 2020) and the forthcoming Best Canadian Essays 2024. Three of her poems have been featured on BC’s Poetry in Transit. Her award-winning poetry videos, made in collaboration with local animators and filmmakers, have been screened at festivals locally and internationally since 2009.