Paradise found: a stunning new voice. Moths, wasps, and toads. Designer drugs, glass eyes, stray bullets, and tea-bagging. Africville, dreads, and ghetto palms. This is a false paradise. Brian Rigg’s lush and linguistically sensuous debut collection shimmers with poetry reminiscent of writers as diverse as Dionne Brand, Thom Gunn, and ee cummings. His world is charged, electric, and eclectic: politically, socially, sexually, and racially, Rigg is always provocative and compelling. Whether its focus is the subtle dynamics of contemporary families, where children plot to put cockroaches in their father’s soup, or “the little gods of loss, of insects & secrets,” or a black immigrant’s experiences with Canadian culture, or the corner of Bleeker and Carlton, a false paradise offers an unique and magically kaleidoscopic union of rhythms and images and words. An impressive new voice, Brian Rigg will shape the literary landscape of Canada’s future.

Brian Rigg's profile page

Brian Rigg was born in Jamaica, but has been living in Toronto for over two decades. His writing has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He has worked as a day-camp councillor, queer services co-ordinator, soccer coach, file clerk and caregiver for adults with special needs. Currently, he’s working on Strange Fruit — a queer journal. a false paradise is his first book.