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Laurie MacFayden
Award-winning writer and visual artist based in Edmonton, Alberta

Writing

  • Poetry

friday nights in grade 8

Posted on October 10, 2015November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

we had no boys at our parties just tea and cribbage sometimes a bowl of bugles beatles 45s and one glass of pop each if mom was in a good mood she loves you ya ya ya 8 days a week baby it’s you we hung off each other and slowdanced a clumsy box-step shuffle […]

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  • Poetry

‘That Laurie MacFayden, she’s a howler’

Posted on May 12, 2015November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

Lovely review of Kissing Keeps Us Afloat from Michael Dennis over at Today’s Book of Poetry. And when I say lovely, I mean fan-fucking-tastic. Some highlights: kissing keeps us afloat is a sustained torrent, a laughing rush, a relentless scream/yodel of passion. This red boat has no oars as it crashes against the shores of love, breaks […]

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  • Poetry

12 words

Posted on February 6, 2015November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

her holy hands scorch me that effervescent grin the laugh that went into the candle wax those splashing eyes her fingers a myriad of vowels, of consonants that eclectic thing she does when she breathes me in her winsome writing dress introspection is where she stepped onto the bus murmuration is where she got off […]

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  • Poetry

correspondence

Posted on December 27, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

every inch of skin between your shoulders and knees is a love letter

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  • Poetry

girls like us

Posted on December 10, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

the same day that holds me holds you girls like us are held by the night, too

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  • Poetry

Alberta Views reviews Quartet 2014

Posted on November 1, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

From Bookshelf, November 2014 issue: […] Laurie MacFayden’s Kissing Keeps Us Afloat relates the experiences of knowing, “by tenth grade,” that one would “never, not ever, be one of the cool kids,” and of recognizing “burgeoning yearnings,” yearnings “we never talked about / the kind two girls aren’t supposed to feel / for each other.” […]

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  • Poetry

Advance praise for Kissing Keeps Us Afloat

Posted on August 29, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

Honky-tonk tunes, swinging & searing verses, meditative narratives, and catalogues of favoured things (including what lovers bring — or leave behind), all merge to make Kissing Keeps Us Afloat a book for tongues and lips to sing. MacFayden knows painting and music, and she loves words and women. The result is art without limit, craft […]

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  • Poetry

Blueprints (excerpt)

Posted on July 9, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

i go back to my dark sad room and make a list of joyful things starting with marc chagall, his stained-glass genius rescued me in chicago and france also, i bought a banjo at a yard sale, music can save lives from Kissing Keeps Us Afloat Laurie MacFayden Release date: September 2014, Frontenac House  

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  • Poetry

e/view of white shirt

Posted on July 2, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

Paula A. Kirman has some nice words about my first poetry collection, White Shirt, on the I Heart Edmonton blog. “How can I best describe MacFayden’s poetic style? Imagine poetry that is at times gritty and personal, that deals with love and lust and sex and broken relationships, that has a tone of a booze-filled night out […]

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  • Poetry

50 words

Posted on April 1, 2014November 24, 2017by LaurieMacFayden

I’m thrilled to be part of this new motion poem video project by Randall Edwards. 50 words made its debut on March 31, with my poem Begin. 12 poets were asked to pen a 50-word poem on the theme of ‘Beginnings.’ PRECISELY 50 words. No easy task, as it turns out. We laid down the vocal tracks in […]

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About Me

I’m an award-winning writer, visual artist and journalist who has lived in Edmonton since 1984. My writing has appeared in The New Quarterly, FreeFall, Queering the Way and Alberta Views. My short story, Haircut, won the Howard O’Hagan prize at the 2017 Alberta Literary Awards. My work has been performed in Edmonton’s Loud & Queer Cabaret, the Skirts Afire Festival, and Calgary’s Q the Arts cultural festival. My latest book, Walking Through Turquoise (Frontenac House, September 2017), continues to explore the flirtations and secrets mined in my first two titles, White Shirt and Kissing Keeps Us Afloat.

Visual arts exhibition highlights include Fighting Normal, a multi-discipline installation with Amy Willans exploring the stigma of mental illness (Winter 2013, Visual Arts Alberta Gallery) and The Poetry of Water (August 2012; solo exhibition, Kaasa Gallery, Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton). My paintings have shown in other public spaces in Edmonton including Harcourt House; the Gallery at Milner; Woodcroft Library, Walterdale Playhouse; Enterprise Square; Blue Plate Diner; Grant MacEwan Gray Gallery; and Bohemia Cafe.

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