In Surface Tension, poetry is liquefied. Flowing away from meaning, letters and words gather and pool into puddles of poetry; street signs and logos reflected in the oily sheen of polluted gutters of rainwater. Like a funhouse mirror reflecting the language that surrounds us, the pages drip over the margins, suggesting that Madge was right — we are "soaking in it!"

Surface Tension updates visual poetry for our post-pandemic age, asking us rethink the verbiage around us, to imagine letters as images instead of text, to find meaning in their beautiful shapes as Beaulieu stretches, torques, slides, blurs and melts them into Dali-esque collages. (From Coach House Books)

Surface Tension is available on Sept. 6, 2022.

Montreal-born, Alberta-based Derek Beaulieu is the author/editor of over 25 collections of poetry, prose, and criticism. His most recent volume of fiction, a, A Novel, was published by France's Jean Boite Editions. His most recent volume of poetry, Surface Tension, is his third from Coach House Books. He was Calgary's Poet Laureate from 2014 to 2016.

Beaulieu has exhibited his visual work across Canada, the United States and Europe and has won multiple local and national awards for his teaching and dedication to students. He is the Director of Literary Arts at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Banff's 2022-2024 Poet Laureate.