Finalist - Pat Lowther Memorial Prize

Rarely does a writer surprise and delight her reader with such beauty, subtlety and subversive vulnerability. Status Update, Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang's second book of poetry, is a collection of epigraph poems, each one composed in response to an entry pulled from a real status update posted on Facebook. Tsiang plays with a wide variety of subjects, from the deeply personal, to the banal, to the puzzling, to the philosophical. Her reverence for language, her playfulness and understanding, often mischievous, weave poems of rich diversity, irony and curiosity.

Status Update is a collision between one of today's most popular social networking websites and the seemingly rigid conventions of poetry. Through this juxtaposition, Tsiang explores the intimate, perverse, and endlessly compelling world of text that is sent out daily to strangers and friends alike.

Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang is the author of the poetry books Status Update and Gerald Lampert Award-winning Sweet Devilry. She is also the author of several children's books, including A Flock of Shoes and Warriors and Wailers. Sarah's work has been published and translated internationally, as well as named to the OLA Best Bets for Children 2010, Best Books for Kids & Teens 2011 & 2012, and the Toronto Public Library's First and Best Book List (2012). She is also the editor of the anthology Desperately Seeking Susans and the forthcoming Tag: Canadian Poets at Play.

Sarah Yi-Mei Tsiang's profile page