Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin is an acclaimed and internationally celebrated poet, editor and writer. Her writings explore ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language. Her notable books include Voodoo Hypothesis, The Dyzgraphxst, The World After Rain: Anne's Poem, Code Noir, and Bright Machine (2026). Recepient of a 2021Windham-Campbell Literature prize for a body of work (poetry), the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, the Derek Walcott Prize, Lubrin has twice been a finalist for the Trillium Book Award and the Governor General's awards for poetry and fiction.

Lubrin has been resident and fellow at the Banff Centre, Civitella Ranieri in Italy, Literature Colloquium Berlin, Queen’s University and Victoria College, University of Toronto, the Terra Foundation, France. She studied at York University and the University of Guelph, where she is an Associate Professor and coordinator of the Creative Writing MFA in the School of Theatre, English and Creative Writing. In 2021, The Globe & Mail named Lubrin Poet of the Year. Her fiction debut Code Noir won the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Danuta Gleed literary Award, was a finalist for the 2024 Governor General’s Award, the Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Fiction Prize, the Balcones Prize, the Trillium Book Award, the Sunburst Award, and longlisted for the Story Prize, with publisher’s weekly calling it “a monumental achievement.” Code Noir, named a best book of the year by The Globe & Mail, the CBC, and The New Yorker, includes 59 drawings by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson.

Lubrin’s work has been translated, anthologized, featured in visual art exhibitions and in publications such as The Atlantic, The Yale Review, The Globe & Mail and The New Quarterly. In addition to presentations at the Wexner Centre for the Arts, MoMA and the Venice Biennale, Lubrin’s writing on visual art includes work by Jennifer Packer, Onyeka Ingwe, Harold Mendez, and Sandra Brewster.

She is the poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart.