Writers across the globe speak out against sexual assault and abuse in this powerful new poetry anthology, edited by Sue Goyette.

These collected poems from writers across the globe declare one common theme: resistance. By exploring sexual assault and violence in their work, each writer resists the patriarchal systems of power that continue to support a misogynist justice system that supports abusers. In doing so, they reclaim their power and their voice.

Created as a response to the Jian Ghomeshi case, writers including Joan Crate, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, and Beth Goobie are, as editor Sue Goyette explains, a “multitude, resisting.” The collection could not be more timely. The work adds a new layer to the ever-growing #MeToo movement.

Resistance underscores the validity of all women’s experiences, and the importance of dignifying such experiences in voice, however that may sound. Because once survivors speak out and disrupt their pain, there is no telling what else they can do.

Sue Goyette has published nine books of poems and a novel. Her collections include The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl, Penelope and Ocean (for which she was awarded the 2015 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award). She is the editor of Resistance: Righteous Rage in the Age of #MeToo (University of Regina Press, 2021), The 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology (Anansi, 2017) and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2013 (Tightrope Books, 2013). Her work has been translated into French, Spanish and German and has been featured in films, subways, buses, spraypainted on a sidewalk and tattooed. She was nominated for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Award and has won several national awards including the Pat Lowther Award, the Bliss Carman Award, and the CBC Literary Prize for Poetry. She is the Artist in Residence in the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and Poet Laureate for Halifax Regional Municipality. She lives in Halifax (K'jipuktuk) where she teaches in the creative writing at Dalhousie University.

Sue Goyette's profile page

“The poems in Resistance do more than resist: they testify and bear witness, grieve and lament, howl and spark… A deeply moving and urgently necessary collection.” —Lisa Richter, author of Closer to Where We Began

"No amount of rage or resistance can erase inflicted trauma, and speaking about assault will not entirely dismantle structures perpetuating sexual violence. However, in its closing poems, the anthology offers hope in the form of community."—Herizons

“A monument to defiance against a terrible, pervasive darkness, demanding our attention and action.” —Nisha Patel, author of Limited Success

“Resistance claims poetry is essential to processing pain . . . . and these voices can seek to claim safety back through ‘resilience and resistance.’” —Micheline Maylor, author of Little Wildheart

“Seventy-eight soul-shattering voices that refuse to be silenced or ashamed. Resistance provides the megaphone.” —Jennifer Musial, New Jersey City University

“Injustice concerning sexual assault cannot be underestimated: Resistance should be required reading for all Canadian legislators.” —Patricia Fell, Artistic Director, Windsor Feminist Theatre