“Sit-com sonnets, soundscapes of noise, videogame goombas, an Old-Testament God, teenage longing within the power chords of heavy metal, and the complicated loss of a father to schizophrenia”
Ignite
A finalist for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize, Ignite is a collection of elegiac and experimental poetry powder-kegged with questions about one man’s lifelong struggle with schizophrenia. Born into a strict Mennonite family, Abe Spenst’s mental illness spanned three decades in and out of mental institutions where he underwent electric shock treatment and coma-induced insulin therapy.
Merging memory and medical records, Kevin Spenst recreates his father’s life through a cuckoo’s nest of styles that both stand as witness and waltz to the interplay between memory, emotion and all our forms of becoming.
Kevin Spenst was in Nanaimo to read from Ignite at Wordstorm and libraries downtown and on Gabriola Island
With a fearless layering of voice, Ignite is upfront and unswerving. A novel-esque torrent tracing a troubling history of illness, part confrontation and part chronicle, this collection is daring with its dark narrative. Here is a willingness for, and enviable strength in, extending poetic range. Ignite heals and ascends. There are books that need to be written and this is one of them. This is a collection which gives more and more with every read. — Sandra Ridley, judge, Alfred G. Bailey prize
A selection of poems from Ignite won the Lush Triumphant Award for Poetry.
Jabbering with Bing Bong
Jabbering with Bing Bong, Kevin Spenst’s much-anticipated debut collection of poetry, opens as a coming-of-age narrative of lower-middle class life in Vancouver’s suburb of Surrey, embroidered within a myriad of pop—and “post-Mennonite”—culture.
Language is at play with sit-com sonnets, soundscapes of noise, videogame goombas, an Old-Testament God, teenage longing within the power chords of heavy metal, and the complicated loss of a father to schizophrenia. Jabbering with Bing Bong chronicles the heartbreaking and slapstick pursuit of truth in the realms of religion, mental health, and poetic form itself.
Jabbering with bing bong, although laced with as much sadness and uncertainty as anyone need carry, brims with poems that will make your brain happy. You are going to be pleased you paid the price of admission for this show. — Michael Dennis, Today’s Book of Poetry
Each of these powerful poems is a facet of the surreal. It’s not bad either that they’re witty, tough and funny. Surrey and its many locales has arrived as literary territory. Fleetwood. Cloverdale. Guildford Mall. Surrey Place. Johnston Heights. The Port Mann. Coast Meridian Road. — Steven Brown, Vancouver Sun
Vancouver poetry landscape is expanding
Vancouver Poetry Crawl organizer Kevin Spenst has a theory about Vancouver’s poetic landscape: “Once-cloistered scenes are opening up, and poets are cross-pollinating. Spoken word poets are learning from page poets and vice versa.” One thing is certain: the city is seeing a poetry resurgence, with a new generation of tech-savvy, experimental writers. — metronews.ca
We speak with poet Kevin Spenst.
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— People First Radio (@peoplefirstrad) May 1, 2016
