Books
In a Tension of Leaves and Binding
Guernica Editions, 2024
Available on Guernica Editions' fall 2024 catalogue, this poetry collection plays with form and perspective to explore our human relationships to nature and to grief.
Shortlisted for a 2025 International Rubery Award, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding is on the 2024 CBC Books fall books to watch for and the CBC Books "Canadian books we can't wait to read this November"
Reviews of the book are available here:
life print, in points
erbacce-press, 2020
Debut poetry collection, life print, in points is the result of my 2020 runner-up win in the UK's erbacce poetry prize. Life, family, and culture run through these poems!
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Written Tenfold (Ed.)
An anthology of poetry from the Brooklin Poetry Society (2018: Poetry Friendly Press)
In 2018, I edited this anthology of poetry to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Brooklin Poetry Society, in Brooklin, Ontario.
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From the 2025 International Rubery Award Judges:
"She demonstrates beautifully a deft attention to different ways of writing, different forms and different conjugations of voice, style, image and vernacular."
Allan Briesmaster, author of Windfor (Ekstasis Editions) and Later Findings (Ekstasis Editions) calls my book:
"a big, bristling
assemblage that is bound to enlighten – and move – its readers multiply, in highly unusual ways."
Divine Angubua, at The Varsity, writes:
"In a Tension of Leaves and Binding is a meditation on attention itself ... The collection challenges, unsettles, and ultimately enriches, reminding us that profound truths await us even in the smallest corners of our world."
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 for Renée's Writing
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."
Kim Fahner, author of The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46) and The Pollination Field (Turnstone Press) states that the book contains:
"unexpected ripples of grief that follow a loss, surprising and occurring when least expected. These pangs are not to be mapped or reined in by a contrived socially imposed timeline; the heart simply won’t have it."
KV Skene, author of Seasonal Adjustments (Wet Ink Press), writes that my book is:
"just what I needed. From first to last it definitely displays a distinctively divergent voice ... a thoroughly enjoyable (haunting) read."
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."
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."
Poet and essayist Mark Liebenow writes: