Renée M. Sgroi
Poet and AWA Writing Workshop Facilitator
Author photo by Elle Marie Photography
New Release
In a Tension of Leaves and Binding
Pre-publication orders of my latest poetry collection, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding (Guernica Editions, 2024) are now available!
By examining our relationships to the natural world, these poems aim to disrupt our assumptions about poetry, meaning, and language through their play with form. An exploration of grief that grapples with the possibilities for hope against the limits of language, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding offers readers new ways to consider our place within the environment.
On the 2024 CBC Books fall poetry collections to wait for!
Order Now
Here's what poet and editor, Allan Briesmaster, author of Windfor (Ekstasis Editions) and Later Findings (Ekstasis Editions) has to say about my book:
"a big, bristling
assemblage that is bound to enlighten – and move – its readers multiply, in highly unusual ways."
Lynn Tait, author of You Break It, You Buy It (Guernica Editions), writes:
"Sgroi’s poems explore the mystery of living organisms we tend to take for granted. This collection makes us consider the world around us and the languages spoken we do not listen to. Renée M. Sgroi is listening."
Praise & Reviews
Darlene Madott, author of nine books, including Dying Times and Winners and Losers (Guernica Editions) says:
"we participate in [the book's] earnest play – to the point of holding book up to mirror, until we realize all the poems are mirrors, we are mirrors, words cast actual shadows, our little lives hold meaning. Thank you, Renée M. Sgroi, for the holy energy with which your fingers caressed this tangled earth of relationships and leaves."
Ed Seaward, author of Fair (Porcupine's Quill), says:
"For those of you who read poetry, who engage in poetry, I recommend that you engage this book of poetry."
Marsha Barber, author of Kaddish for My Mother (Borealis Press), writes:
"This book is a wonder, playing with form and language and stretching the boundaries of what the very best poetry can achieve. These nature-rooted poems, take the ordinary and, through the poet’s alchemy, transform the everyday into something magical. This book, dazzles “enough to silver, to shine, gold and chiaroscuro with light.” At once erudite and inviting, here is a beautifully written collection of fresh and interesting poems that is as earthy, rich and lush as the gardens Sgroi celebrates."
About Renée M. Sgroi
Renée M. Sgroi (she/her) edited the poetry anthology, Written Tenfold (Poetry Friendly Press, 2018), and has published one poetry collection, life print, in points (erbacce-press, 2020). Her second book of poetry, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding is forthcoming this fall with Guernica Editions, and is on the CBC Books 2024 fall poetry book preview list. Renée's poems have most recently been published in such literary journals as Funicular Magazine, Parentheses Journal, Literary Review of Canada, and Pinhole Poetry, with poems forthcoming in yolk literary magazine and Augur Magazine.
Renée is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) affiliate, and offers writing workshops to emerging writers using the Amherst method. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science degree in Creativity and Change Leadership from SUNY Buffalo State University, and has taught adult learners for more than 25 years. A member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, Canadian Authors Association, the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers, and The Ontario Poetry Society, Renée is also a contributing editor for Arc Poetry Magazine.