Spenser Smith – A brief relief from hunger

A brief relief from hunger is a poetry collection about the yearnings of a young man – cocaine, human connection, fast food – and the ravenous world in which he lives. In Vancouver, the speaker binges on Big Macs post-rehab while others consume fentanyl-tainted drugs. Growling bodies are everywhere, including Facebook, where people post cruel comments about drug users in the face of British Columbia’s toxic drug-supply crisis. At the heart of the collection are poems that respond to these comments from the perspective of the speaker, now sober but still hungry, whose friends are dying from the contaminated drug supply. The speaker knows at least one reliable source of contentment: his grandma’s kitchen, where, at his lowest points, he finds cabbage rolls, acceptance, and a tenderness he wishes to absorb into his masculinity.

Content Warning: Substance abuse plays an existential, but not promotional, role in several of his poems.

The poet will be joined at the launch by opening readers Sarah Ens and Hannah Green. Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. $20.00 per copy; cash.

Please note that attendees will be required to wear face masks for this event.

About the Author

Spenser Smith is a Regina-born poet, essayist, and photographer who recently moved to Winnipeg after 10 years in B.C. His debut book of poetry, a brief relief from hunger was published by Gordon Hill Press in 2023.

His writing also appears in The Malahut Review, Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, the Capilano Review, Poetry is Dead, Vallum, sub Terrain, The Puritan, and SAD Mag. He holds a B.A. in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. His work is supported by the League of Canadian Poets and the Canada Council of the Arts.