If a book can be a mirror, The Better Monsters reflects what we see in ourselves and in each other. Replete with compelling protagonists and cross-referencing multiple identities, Puneet Dutt's poems masterfully negotiate the cultural complexities of politics, violence, and war in the new century, and explore the lingering effect of racism and the ideas of borders, belonging, and home in North America and beyond. Honest, disarming, and brimming with the harrowing experiences and emotions of the individual, The Better Monsters is a fine debut from one of Canada's most exciting emerging poets.

Puneet Dutt is the daughter of immigrants and was born in New Delhi, India and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. She received her MA in English from Ryerson University, and resides in Toronto, Ontario with her husband, where she is an editorial board member of Canthius, a literary journal. Puneet is also a certified Amherst Writers and Artist facilitator, and works with the Toronto Writers Collective, Ve'ahavta and the Toronto Public Library to help facilitate creative writing workshops that aim to encourage voice and illuminate undiscovered strength in Toronto's most vulnerable communities. Her work has been published in numerous journals and in Imaginarium 4: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. In 2016, her chapbook PTSD south beach (Grey Borders Books) was a Finalist for the Breitling Chapbook Prize (Phantom Books).

Puneet Dutt's profile page

"Fierce and finely crafted, The Better Monsters distils life's strangeness in poems that bridge the gap between warning and augury. A tour-de-force from one of Canada's most promising writers."
-Jim Johnstone, author of The Chemical Life
"In this gripping first collection, Dutt evokes innocence within and despite the cruel enigma of inevitable arrival. She masterfully connotes this ironic centre-the empty solace of truth telling: 'so fast they left us/to get there.'"
-Hal Niedzviecki, Broken Pencil Magazine
"The poems in The Better Monsters teach us how humanity is its own greatest threat but also its greatest salvation. Dutt's world is one of greater and lesser evils, where the only virtue is the beauty that her language provides. Yes, perhaps her poetry is our best chance to escape our everyday monsters, our monsters within."
-Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Pushcart Prize nominated poet, New York University, United Nations consultant