My body on a bus stop bench is a place of high drama, writes  poet Alison Braid-Fernandez in her poem, Blue Dot, which is included in the Montreal Poetry Prize 2022 Anthology.

Alison Braid-Fernandez is a Canadian poet who has lived in Prague, Vancouver and now London, England. Her work is informed by the legacy and environment of these unique locales and the relationships she has encountered with individuals, trains and buses, parks, fruit, colours, the devices we live with. Lately she has been writing ekphrastic poems which take their inspiration from art works but also from overlapping influences such as music and the written word. Their influences on the body are at the heart of Alison's poems. 

The ekphrastic references are so complex, juicy and evocative that I decided to list them here as an aid to the listener in my fascinating interchange with Alison. Enjoy.

Blue Dot: after Dorothea Lasky, Animal, essays

Ekphrasis Yourself, Jennifer Nelson, Woodland Pattern Book Centre, woodland pattern.org

Embracing Confusion, Bryon Cherry, woodlandpattern.org

Light Upon the Body, after Adrienne Dagg, Luncheon in Room 206, Bau-Xi Gallery

Moving Continents, after Leonardo Cappiello, Chocolat Klaus, Library of Congress

Nectarine Heart #1 after John Wilde, Boxed Fruit #1: A Nectarine, Milwaukee Art Museum

Oranges, after Erin Armstrong, Between Two Minds, Bau-Xi Gallery

Alison Braid-Fernandez's first chapbook, Little Hunches was published with Anstruther Press (2020.) She is presently working on a short story collection, Look Both Ways and Other Stories. Visit her website to learn and read more. 

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