By Evelyn Lau
In her tenth volume of poetry, Parade of Storms, award-winning author Evelyn Lau turns her focus on the weather. Never having thought of herself as an environmental poet, the author found that under the strictures of the pandemic, the recent effects of climate change became more and more intrusive and unavoidable. Storms, floods, wildfires, and environmental devastations sent news headlines leaping out in sharp relief — “a river in the sky,” “atmospheric rivers,” “parade of storms,” “heat dome” — and in such poetic terminology. Weather, both physical and emotional, forms the backdrop to this new collection.
Other themes that appear in the author’s previous work — relationships, the body, aging/illness/mortality, place, mood disorders, the shadows of the past — are explored here too.
PRAISE FOR PARADE OF STORMS:
“Evelyn Lau goes to a place deep within herself in Parade of Storms that can view Vancouver’s tent cities and found needles, the container ship stacked “like a copper fort bricked against sky”, the floods, the hospices, the wildfires, the Chinese lanterns, the motel lobby signs, the young man’s “come-on” in an elevator, the skies the colour of a peach Bellini, and make it all meaningful without offering any easy answers. It is a complex poetic vision designed for a complex world.”
— Chris Banks, The Woodlot
Evelyn Lau is the Vancouver author of fifteen books, including ten volumes of poetry. Her first book, Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid (HarperCollins, 1989) was published when she was eighteen; it was made into a CBC movie starring Sandra Oh in her first major role. Evelyn’s short stories, essays, and novel have been translated into a dozen languages. Her poetry has received the Milton Acorn Award, the Pat Lowther Award, a National Magazine Award, and nominations for the BC Book Prize and the Governor General’s Award. Her poems have been chosen for inclusion in both the Best Canadian Poetry and Best American Poetry anthologies. From 2011-2014, Evelyn served as Poet Laureate for the City of Vancouver. Her previous collection is Cactus Gardens (Anvil, 2022), which was included in CBC’s Top 20 Poetry Books of 2022, shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Award, and received the Fred Cogswell Award. Parade of Storms is her tenth collection of poetry.
