Winner, 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry

Marked by rhythmic drive, humour, and surprise, Undi’s poems consider what is left out from the history and ongoing realities of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Firmly grounded in the local, the arresting poems in Chimwemwe Undi’s debut collection, Scientific Marvel, are preoccupied with Winnipeg in the way a Winnipegger is preoccupied with Winnipeg, the way a poet might be preoccupied with herself: through history and immigration; race and gender; anxieties and observation. Marked by rhythmic drive, humour and surprise, Undi’s poems consider what is left out from the history and ongoing realities of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the west. Taking its title from a beauty school in downtown Winnipeg that closed in 2017 after nearly 100 years of operation, Scientific Marvel approaches the prairies from the point of view of a person who is often erased from the prairies’ idea of itself. “I mean my country the way / my country means my country / and what else is there to say? / I am bad and brown / and trying. Nothing here / belongs to me or could / or ever will.”

This is poetry that touches on challenging topics—from queerness and colonialism to racism, climate rage, and decolonization, while never straying far from specific lived experience, the so-called ‘smaller’ questions: about self, art, dance parties and pop culture, relationships and love.

CHIMWEMWE UNDI is a poet, editor, and lawyer living and writing on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her work has appeared in Brick, Border Crossings, Canadian Literature and BBC World, among others. She was the recipient of the 2022 John Hirsch Emerging Writer Award from the Manitoba Book Awards, and she is the Winnipeg Poet Laureate for 2023 and 2024.

Chimwemwe Undi's profile page

• Winner, Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry

“What is remarkable about Scientific Marvel is the way Undi seamlessly creates threads between Winnipeg landmarks and girlhood, legal cases and love, grammar, and ancestry … Her poetic voice remains distinct, strong, and memorable.” — Room Magazine

"Incisive and precise, tender and loving, these poems escort readers through questions of race and place, disappeared histories, immigration, gender and climate angst … A captivating debut, Scientific Marvel transforms through tough lessons and uplifts through lively language play — and, of course, love." — Toronto Star

“Politically astute, rigorously loving, lyrically deft debut collection.” — Herizons

“Scientific Marvel is intelligent and incisive … perceptive and vulnerable.” — The Miramichi Reader