Publisher Description

Proof explores the worlds of entomology, memory and mathematics. What can be proven with empirical evidence and what demands reason. The poems examine the means of observation from the entomologist to the grief stricken mathematician. From break-ups to Dung Beetles, these poems move from microscope to recollection and from the abstract math proof to the visceral sting of the wasps barbed quill.

Author Biography

Larissa Andrusyshyns first book Mammoth (DC Books 2010) was shortlisted for the QWF First Book Prize and the Kobzar Literary Award. Her poems have been shortlisted for Arc Magazines Poem of the Year and the Malahat Reviews Open Season Award. She works with a local non-profit to offer creative writing workshops to at-risk youth. She lives, writes and is planning her zombie apocalypse survival strategy in Montreal

Review

'Andrusyshyns audacity in using the Ew! factor in a set of poems about insects is impressive. Literature has never included poems about Sex Lives of Leopard Slugs or The Diving Bell Spider. John Donne, who brought scientific imagery into his poetry, would be impressed. One of her best poems, The Genus Nabokovia, uses facts about the butterfly discovered by and named for Vladimir Nabokov as a means of describing his work and his relationship with his muse/wife, Vera. Its a shame he isnt alive to read it, especially the daring line about the butterfly having photoreceptors in its appendage / it sees with its genitalia. The fondness for declarative sentences in this book, combined with the short lines, gives it a brisk, tonic quality. The titlepoem lists various meanings of proof, though she does not include the term as used in the field of numismatics to denote coins of exceptional quality struck for collectors. Her work is a proof copy in this sense: polished to a shine.' -- Bert Almon, MRB, Spring 2015

Review Text

'Andrusyshyns audacity in using the Ew! factor in a set of poems about insects is impressive. Literature has never included poems about Sex Lives of Leopard Slugs or The Diving Bell Spider. John Donne, who brought scientific imagery into his poetry, would be impressed. One of her best poems, The Genus Nabokovia, uses facts about the butterfly discovered by and named for Vladimir Nabokov as a means of describing his work and his relationship with his muse/wife, Vera. Its a shame he isnt alive to read it, especially the daring line about the butterfly having photoreceptors in its appendage / it sees with its genitalia. The fondness for declarative sentences in this book, combined with the short lines, gives it a brisk, tonic quality. The titlepoem lists various meanings of proof, though she does not include the term as used in the field of numismatics to denote coins of exceptional quality struck for collectors. Her work is a proof copy in this sense: polished to a shine.' -- Bert Almon, MRB, Spring 2015

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