Michael Lista (born September 1, 1983) is a Canadian poet. He is the author of ''Bloom'', a book of poems about Canadian

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

physicist Louis Slotin. He writes a monthly column on poetry for ''

The National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'' and lives in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario.

Career

Poems from Lista's debut, ''Bloom'', first began appearing in 2007, when the art magazine ''Border Crossings'' published "Fourteen Poems from Bloom" prefaced by a lengthy editorial introduction in its November 2007 issue. Selections from Bloom then appeared in many of Canada's literary journals and magazines, including ''ARC Magazine'', ''Descant'', ''Event'', ''Maisonneuve'', ''The Malahat Review'', ''Rhythm'', and ''The Walrus''. In the summer of 2008 Canadian poet Ken Babstock selected and read some of Lista's ''Bloom'' poems as part of the Scream Literary Festival's Alumni Night. Excerpts were published in the chapbook Best Practices. Later that summer, while in Los Alamos, New Mexico, Lista received and accepted an offer to publish ''Bloom'' with

House of Anansi Press House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. History Anansi ...

. In the months leading up to its publication in April 2010, Bloom was named one of the most anticipated books of the year by

Quill and Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

, Maisonneuve, and by

Carmine Starnino Carmine Starnino is a Canadians, Canadian poet, essayist, educator and editing, editor. Biography He was born in 1970 in Montreal, Quebec, into an Italian people, Italian heritage. His first poetry collection ''The New World'' (1997) was nomina ...

on the ''Véhicule Press'' Blog. ''Quill and Quire'' named it one of its ten best books of 2010, the first time a book of poems has been so acknowledged since 2006's Airstream ''Land Yacht'' by Ken Babstock. November 2010 saw the inauguration of Lista's monthly column ''On Poetry'' in ''The National Post''.

References

External links

Publisher's web page on Lista

Audio recordings of Lista reading ''Bloom'' in its entirety

''Globe and Mail'' review of ''Bloom'', June, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lista, Michael 21st-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Living people 1983 births Poets from Toronto 21st-century Canadian male writers