Book launch: nightstead by David Martin

In his most personal collection to date, award-winning poet David Martin elegizes his younger brother, who died by suicide at the age of twenty-three. With a mixture of childhood recollections and anguished immediate perceptions, "nightstead" produces a complex memorial while pushing against the utmost limits of memory’s power. Dislocating experiments juxtapose with searingly direct verse to make a haunting poetic memoir that will remain with readers long after they put it down.

David will be joined by Colin Martin.


David Martin works as a literacy instructor in Calgary and also as an organizer for the Single Onion Poetry Series. His first collection, "Tar Swan" (NeWest Press, 2018), was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award and the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize. His second collection, "Kink Bands" (NeWest Press, 2023), was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry (BPAA) and the Banff Mountain Book Competition. His book "Limited Verse" was published by the University of Calgary Press in 2024 and was shortlisted for the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize.. As well, David’s work has been awarded the CBC Poetry Prize and was included in Best Canadian Poetry 2025 (Biblioasis). His latest collection, "nightstead," was published by Palimpsest Press in 2026

You may also like the following events from Shelf Life Books:

• Next Saturday, 28th February, 11:00 am, How Can You Think That? Political Book Club: Health for All in Calgary
• Next month, 12th March, 07:00 pm, Guelph Comes to Calgary: Madhur Anand in Calgary

Also check out other Arts events in Calgary, Literary Art events in Calgary, Contests in Calgary.