This Real

"To be a mother in a post-9/11 world with a child whose name suggested an affiliation to terrorism; to keep my son safe against prejudice, raising him with love and care, but also ignorant about how to be a mother; these issues served the writing of this collection. A book about the shock of world events; the shock of becoming a mother; the shock of failing to be a mother in a system failing to provide support; it is about my love for my son. It is also a replay of my childhood, growing up with my mother who was, I think, psychic, and generally anxious about the future. Becoming a mother was an encounter with the real, and I have never recovered."

concetta principe writes poetry and fiction, and has published three previous works including walking (2013), Interference (1999) and Stained Glass (1997). She received a PhD in Humanities in 2014; a scholarly work came out with Palgrave Macmillan in 2015. She is a sessional professor of literature / creative writing at York and Trent Universities, and lives in Toronto. She has published in online journals such as Lemon Hound and The Rusty Toque, and in print journals such as The Malahat Review, Grain, and Matrix.