"'Wearing glasses of Water' ... refers to suffering and the very act of crying. This suffering comes across in different ways: the suffering of the poetic self, the loss of loves ones, the witnesssing of exploitation of humans by humans, animals by humans ..."

Combining the real with the imaginary, the logical with the intuitive, the mystical with the mythical, and both oral and written traditions, these evocative and complexly intriguing poems suggest a variety of modern issues. They bring together different geographical, temporal and cultural spaces to explore spiritual alienation and the nature of being, the power of language both to liberate and to oppress.

Irene Marques is a bilingual writer (English and Portuguese) and Lecturer at Ryerson University in the English Department, where she teaches literature and creative writing. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, a Masters in French Literature and Comparative Literature and a BA (Hon.) in French Language and Literature all from the University of Toronto?and a Bachelor of Social Work from Ryerson University. Her literary publications include the poetry collections Wearing Glasses of Water (2007), The Perfect Unravelling of the Spirit (2012), and The Circular Incantation: An Exercise in Loss and Findings (2013); the Portuguese language short-story collection Habitando na Metáfora do Tempo: Crónicas Desejadas (2009) and the novel My House is a Mansion (2015). Her academic publications include, among others, the manuscript Transnational Discourses on Class, Gender and Cultural Identity, and numerous articles in international journals or scholarly collectives, including African Identities: Journal of Economics, Culture and Society; Research in African Literatures; A Companion to Mia Couto; Letras & Letras; InterDISCIPLINARY: Journal of Portuguese Diaspora Studies; African Studies; and Portuguese Studies Review. Her Portuguese-language novel, Uma Casa no Mundo, won the 2019 Imprensa Nacional/Ferreira de Castro Prize and is now published by Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda. She lives in Toronto. www.irenemarques.net

Irene Marques' profile page

"Marques has a clear ability to turn a poem and make it her own." - ARC "The essence of Marques's poetry is a peep into the compleximensions and psychological states of being, of creativeness and inventiveness with the Word, of themes and motifs of libidinal drives or instincts, of internal emotional conflicts where individual impulses and needs must be placed in ethical resolution with social or moral obligations." - African Journal of New Poetry