Gillian Sze is the author of multiple poetry books and picture books. Her books for children include I Drew A Heart (ill. Naoko Stoop) and The Little Green Envelope (ill. Claudine Crangle). Her latest poetry collection, Quiet Night Think, received the 2023 Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Gillian’s writing has been translated into Slovenian, French, Italian, Turkish, Hebrew, Spanish, and Greek. She currently resides in Montreal where she teaches literature and creative writing at Concordia University.

Synopsis

Quiet Night Think

“One function of the poet at any time is to discover by his own thought and feeling what seems to him to be poetry at that time,” writes Wallace Stevens. In Quiet Night Think, award-winning poet Gillian Sze expresses her own definition.

During the remarkable period of early parenthood, Sze’s new maternal role urges her to contemplate her own origins, both familial and artistic. Comprised of six personal essays, poems, and a concluding long poem, Quiet Night Think takes its title from a direct translation of an eighth-century Chinese poem by Li Bai, the subject of the opening essay. Sze’s memory of reading Li Bai’s poem as a child marks the beginning of an unshakable encounter with poetry. What follows is an intimate anatomization of her particular entanglement with languages and cultures.

In her most generically diverse book yet, Sze moves between poetry and prose, mother and writer, the lyrical and the autobiographical, all the while inviting readers to meditate with her on questions of emergence and transformation: What are you trying to be? Where does a word break off? What calls to us throughout the night?

I Drew a Heart

 A little boy spends the day drawing hearts—wavy hearts, wiggly hearts, wide hearts and tiny hearts, broken hearts and polka-dotted hearts—and each heart a reminder of a favorite memory: dancing, kite flying, first steps, and more.This poignant and lyrical book with vibrant illustrations celebrates a multigenerational family, creativity, and love. 

The Little Green Envelope

Olive’s friend has moved away, and Olive wishes she could visit her. A little green envelope, lost in the bottom of the desk drawer, knows how Olive feels. It, too, wants so much to travel, and imagines zipping up and down conveyer belts and bouncing along in a mail bag, on its way to deliver an important letter. An old postcard reassures that for every occasion, there is an envelope … but it seems like it will never be the little green envelope’s turn. When Olive’s grandpa suggests writing her friend a letter, the little green envelope hopes and hopes that it will be chosen to carry the letter to its destination — but will it be a perfect fit?