An Evening with Author Canisia Lubrin

Join us for a special literary evening celebrating the forthcoming book The World After Rain by acclaimed poet, editor, and novelist Canisia Lubrin. In conversation with Souvankham Thammavongsa.

The evening will open with brief readings by The RBC / PEN Canada New Voices Award 2025 winners: Georgio Russell & Anna Sokolova, setting the stage for Canisia’s featured reading from her highly anticipated new collection.

A Carol Shields Prize winner for her collection of fictions Code Noir, Canisia Lubrin now brings readers a long-form poetic tribute to her mother, praised by Dionne Brand as “incandescent”. She is also the author of The Dyzgraphxst (winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize) and Voodoo Hypothesis.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of the most vital voices in contemporary literature share new work.

This evening is brought to you by the Forum for Caribbean Writers and Readers, PEN Canada, Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, and New College - University of Toronto.

📖 The World After Rain is published by Soft Skull Press.

Learn more about the book here.

Canisia's Bio:

Canisia Lubrin is the acclaimed author of Voodoo Hypothesis (2017), The Dyzgraphxst (2020), The World After Rain (2025) and Code Noir. Her honours include a 2021Windham-Campbell prize for poetry, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Derek Walcott Prize, and finalist for the Trillium Poetry award and Governor General's awards for poetry. 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 (Knopf Canada, 2024/Soft Skull Press, 2025/Oneworld, 2026) 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 and the Sunburst Award, with publisher’s weekly calling it “a monumental achievement.” Code Noir includes 59 drawings by acclaimed visual artist Torkwase Dyson. Stories in the collection have been listed for the Journey Prize (2019, 2020), Toronto Book Award (2018) and the Shirley Jackson Award (2021). Poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, Lubrin was born in St. Lucia and lives in Whitby. The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem is published by M&S in 2025 and in the US (Soft Skull) and UK (Silver Press) in 2026. Her fourth poetry volume is forthcoming in 2026.

Special Thanks to Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

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