p a u s e. - Softcover

Carpenter, J R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1917617569 ISBN 13: 9781917617567

Publisher: Broken Sleep Books, 2026

Synopsis

In p a u s e. J. R. Carpenter turns the simple act of going for a walk into a radical practice of attention. Written over the course of a year of daily encounters with kisiskâciwanisîpiy (the North Saskatchewan River) as it runs through amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) in Treaty 6 Territory, this long poem listens closely to water and weather, birds and trees, mudstone and ice, while never forgetting that no geology, no language, and no river are neutral. 

Written in short, breath-like fragments, p a u s e. drifts between field note, love poem, and land acknowledgement, refusing settled as a genre. Fossils, wildfire haze, trumpeter swans, city traffic, and pandemic loneliness all pass through its pages, as the poem keeps returning to one insistent question: what happens when we treat noticing as a form of care, and listening as a way of giving something back.

About this title

About the Author

J. R. Carpenter is a queer artist, writer, mudlark, fossil hunter, and a lecturer at University of Leeds. Born of migrants in Mi'kma'ki they lived in Tiohtià ke for many years before emigrating to England in 2010. Their work asks questions about place, displacement, colonialism, and climate across performance, print and digital media. For more information visit luckysoap.com

Edition details

• Publisher: Broken Sleep Books
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1917617569
• ISBN 13: 9781917617567
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 136