Priscila Uppal

“Canada’s coolest poet”, 91��ɫ English Professor Priscila Uppal (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04), has received one of the country’s highest forms of recognition – election as a Fellow to the (RSC).

Uppal has accomplished a great deal in her 39 years. She has published 10 collections of poetry, two novels, a memoir, a play, an academic monograph and several anthologies. Her poetry includes Traumatology (2010), Successful Tragedies: Poems 1998-2010 (2010), Winter Sport: Poems (2010) and Ontological Necessities, which was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize.

“This is a wonderful achievement for Professor Uppal, who exemplifies the excellence, dedication and engagement of our 91��ɫ faculty," says 91��ɫ President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. "A gifted poet, writer and teacher, she is an incredible role model for our students and for the arts community. On behalf of all of us at the University, I’d like to congratulate her on this special recognition of her contributions.”

Uppal's other work includes the critically-acclaimed novels The Divine Economy of Salvation (2002) and To Whom It May Concern (2009); and the study We Are What We Mourn: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy (2009), as well as the memoir Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother (2013), which was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Hilary Weston Prize for Non-Fiction.

“It’s a big honour and it obviously puts me in the company of some very remarkable people, past and present,” says Uppal, who is one of 90 new Fellows announced Tuesday by the RSC. “I’m also thrilled to be inducted at such a young age, which I understand is quite rare.”

Uppal's work has been translated into Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Korean, Latvian and Serbo-Croatian. Uppal was the first-ever poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the summer and winter Olympics and Paralympic games, as well as the Rogers Cup tennis.

“I was very pleased to see that recognition for my work, but also the continued recognition…that creative work is a form of research that is highly respected and it is a field of knowledge that is important and vital to society and to Canadian citizenship,” adds Uppal.

She is looking forward to the opportunity to learn about research and discoveries in drastically different fields from her own. She believes one of the strengths of the RSC is that is brings people together from such diverse disciplines allowing for a cross-pollination of ideas and the spawning of innovative ways of thinking, adapting and approaching one’s work.

“I’m delighted to be a Fellow,” she says. “It’s a great honour to represent the arts at 91��ɫ, but also to represent the field of artistic production and inquiry. It should be seen as not only a legitimate form of research, but also as an incredibly important one that can stand side by side the hard sciences and other more conventional forms of scholarship."

The RSC website states that the “fellowship of the RSC comprises distinguished men and women from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life”. Uppal will join the ranks of more than 2,000 Canadian scholars, artists and scientists, who have been peer-elected as the best in their field.

Uppal will be inducted as a Fellow in the ’s Academy of the Arts and Humanities on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Quebec City.

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This is the third time Uppal (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04) has collaborated with Ehrenworth, a former fine arts and cultural studies student at 91��ɫ. The book, Curse. Sleep., is a manifestation of an earlier exhibit by the pair and will launch on Thursday, June 2, from 5 to 7pm at Sweaty Betty’s, 13 Ossington Ave., Toronto. The event is free and everyone is welcome. The book is designed by Justin Broadbent.

Written in cursive under another photo with a willowy impression of sunlight against a fence, it says, “My mother still asks about you.” “They’re inner confessions,” says . Unlike the full lyrical poems she wrote for Ehrenworth’s 2003 exhibit Holocaust Dream, which was also made into a book, this time they are brief poetic expressions that help tell the story of a boy and a girl, two halves of the same person, struggling to return to wholeness after an unnamed trauma splits them apart.

Left: Art and poetry run together in the book, Curse. Sleep. (That’s the Thing About Trouble)

“There’s very much a graffiti feel to the writing,” says Uppal. Most of the art from the exhibit is in an eclectic mix of sizes and dimensions, but the writing doesn’t necessary correspond to the piece closest to it. “They are almost free floating between images,” says Uppal. “So the narrative is a little different from the exhibit. They are scattered like a dreamscape, as if you can hear some sounds, but can’t quite make them out. The impact is still haunting.”

It is with this work that Ehrenworth has returned to his photographic exploration of dream states, trauma, sexuality and texture. He is currently at work on Curse. Sleep. (Away Away Away), the second part in the Curse. Sleep. trilogy, expected in 2013.

And Uppal has provided “the verbal subtext, which goes along with the images.”

Right: Artist Daniel Ehrenworth and English Professor Priscila Uppal collaborated on an exhibition, which led to the new book

Uppal’s publications include seven collections of poetry, including the Griffin Poetry Prize shortlisted Ontological Necessities (Exile Editions, 2006), Traumatology (Exile Editions, 2010), Winter Sport: Poems (Mansfield Press, 2010) and Successful Tragedies: Poems 1998-2010 (Bloodaxe Books, 2010). She is also author of critically acclaimed novels The Divine Economy of Salvation (Algonquin Books, 2002) and To Whom It May Concern (Doubleday Canada, 2009); and the study We Are What We Mourn: The Contemporary English-Canadian Elegy (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009). She was poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic games. She was dubbed “Canada’s coolest poet” by Time Out London.

Ehrenworth works as both a commercial photographer and a photo-based artist in Toronto, Canada. He has exhibited work at numerous galleries across Canada and was the co-curator of Stranger than Fiction: The Delicate Art of Faking History at the Forest City Gallery in 2007. His artwork has been published in Maisonneuve, Applied Arts, Black and White Magazine, numerous art blogs, and is collected among various private collectors throughout Canada and the United States. He has also won awards for his commercial work.

For more information or to order the book, Curse. Sleep. (That’s the Thing About Trouble), visit ’s website or contact him at dan@dephoto.org.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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As with previous 91��ɫ Circle Lecture & Lunch events, organizers have planned a full day of inspiring lectures by some of the University’s leading thinkers. For full details, download a PDF of the 91��ɫ Circle schedule.

In her lecture, “The Bird Detective: Investigating the Private Lives of Birds”, 91��ɫ Professor Bridget Stutchbury (left), Canada Research Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology, will explain why some birds readily divorce their partners, why females sneak out to have sex with neighbouring males and why some mothers sometimes desert their babies. Based on her book (2010), this lecture promises to raise the blinds on the secret lives of birds.

On a more serious note, Stutchbury will examine whether bird behaviour can help species adapt to the drastic changes humans are making to the environment. Since the 1980s, Stutchbury has studied the ecology and conservation of migratory songbirds. In addition to The Bird Detective, she is author of the book (2007) – a finalist for a Governor General’s Literary Award.

"The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, the African, and the Abolition of the British Slave Trade" is the intriguing title of the presentation by 91��ɫ history Professor Paul Lovejoy (right), Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History ���Ի���director of the . In his lecture, Lovejoy will explore the pivotal role of Gustavus Vassa, better known by his African name, Olaudah Equiano (c. 1742-1797), in advancing the abolition of the British slave trade. Many scholars consider William Wilberforce (c. 1759-1833) and Thomas Clarkson (c. 1760-1846) to be the pioneers of the British abolitionist movement, but Lovejoy posits that it was Equiano who was the seminal influence in advocating the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of those in slavery.

Lovejoy is a member of the executive committee of the UNESCO “Slave Route” Project, co-edits African Economic History and Studies in the History of the African Diaspora – Documents (SHADD), and is research professor and associate fellow of the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom.

Acclaimed Canadian poet and 91��ɫ Professor (left) will discuss her experiences as Canadian Athletes Now Fund’s first poet-in-residence during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games. In her lecture, which is aptly titled, "My Gold Medal Experience: Olympic Poetry", Uppal will describe how she celebrated with the Canadian athletes and their families by writing poetry about winter sports, the games, and the personalities and performances that captured a nation’s imagination.

How she designed and then “trained” for her position, how the athletes responded to daily poetry readings, and other initiatives she’s undertaken to bridge the sometimes separate worlds of sport and art, will all be addressed. In addition, Uppal will read a short selection of the some of the 50 poems written at the games and recently collected in the book Winter Sport: Poems (2010).

"A World of Suburbs? Finding the Heart of the Urban Century in the Periphery" with 91��ɫ environmental studies Professor Roger Keil (right) will offer 91��ɫ Circle members insights into urbanization. The 21st century has been heralded as an urban century. Indeed, urbanization is now the most tangible shared experience of humanity. Keil will explore what is behind the story of the "urban revolution". He will uncover an important and perhaps astonishing truth: Most urban dwellers now live in the periphery. From the squatter settlements of the Global South to the wealthy gated communities of North America, from the tower block peripheries of Europe or Canada to the newly sprawling cities of Asia, a common theme emerges: where cities grow, they grow at the margins.

Keil is the director of the City Institute at 91��ɫ and professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. Among his publications are In-Between Infrastructure: Urban Connectivity in an Age of Vulnerability (2010) and The Global Cities Reader (2006). Keil’s current research is on global suburbanism and regional governance. He is the co-editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and a co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action.

This free series includes two events annually – in the spring and fall each year – and provides opportunities for learning and networking in a relaxed environment.

Lecture & Lunch events are open to members of the 91��ɫ Circle and their guests, each of whom are offered a complimentary lunch sourced from 91��ɫ Region as part of the day.

The 91��ɫ Circle receives generous support from 91��ɫ's Alumni Office (program partner) and the Toronto Community News and Metroland Media Group 91��ɫ Region (print media sponsors).

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On various Wednesdays between 11 and 11:30am, including tomorrow, Uppal will discuss what she has been reading lately as part of “Biblio-file”, a segment on the “The Link”, a live radio show broadcasting out of CBC’s Montreal studio with host Mark Montgomery, although Uppal will be ensconced in the Toronto studio.

It’s a perfect fit. Uppal says she “basically reads so many books anyway and loves to talk about them” that this just gives her another opportunity to do so, and at the same time “influence an audience,” introducing people to great Canadian literature and quirky items with which they may not be familiar.

For her first show, Uppal spoke about her favourite Canadian playwright, George F. Walker, and his six-play cycle Suburban Motel, set in the same rundown motel room. It was the first time “Biblio-file” has featured a playwright’s work. “It gave me an opportunity to reread his plays,” says Uppal. “He’s just a whiz with words. His narratives are filled with desperate people…they’re just really trying to get themselves out of a hole…it’s great though, because he’s able to see tragedy as absurd.”

Tomorrow, she will discuss Jessica Grant's debut novel Come, Thou Tortoise – Uppal was on the jury that awarded Grant’s book the 2010 Amazon First Novel Award. Talking about it on air gives her the chance to explain why the book was chosen and what’s so great about it.

Left: Priscila Uppal

On Dec. 22, Uppal will look at the poetry collection 38 Bar Blues by blues, hip hop, folk and rock musician . “I would think most people wouldn’t know he writes poetry,” says Uppal. Most people think of him as a spoken word artist and he is also not considered a mainstream poet. Not only that, few poetry titles actually make it into a bookstore where people can come across them on their own.

And this is what really excites Uppal – she will be able to bring not only mainstream titles, but more obscure novels, plays and collections of short stories and poetry to her audience’s attention. Works they should pay attention to, works that will intrigue, fascinate and inspire.

“The Link”, a two-hour daily radio show aimed at connecting people to Canada and Canada to the world, includes daily current affairs and culture stories, from 11am to 1pm, via the Internet, short wave and satellite radio. It is rebroadcast from 2 to 4am as part of CBC Radio One's overnight programming.

To listen to “The Link” or the “Biblio-file” segment, visit the “” website.

You can on George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Uppal is the fourth guest editor in the anthology’s short history and joins poets Lorna Crozier –  editor of the 2010 anthology launched last week – A.F. Moritz from 2009 and Stephanie Bolster from 2008. The anthologies are published by with series editor Molly Peacock, the author of six volumes of poetry, including . It is Canada’s answer to series of anthologies that have been around more than two decades.

Uppal will be looking for poems that stand out, show a facility with language, surprise, precision and clarity of vision. “I like to be given something that offers illumination or a unique experience through the poem,” she says. Something original and different, such as a reinvention of the tradition they’re writing in. “I want poems that are necessary, poems that people can say, this is an author I’m really interested in reading more of, not just another voice like the others,” says Uppal. They need to be vital with complexity of thought, challenging in ways that force her to “think or experience something in a new way…not just a pat delivery of emotion.”

It’s a humbling exploit. “I’ll have to sit and make a lot of difficult choices,” she says. There are some 60 print and online journals and magazines in Canada, some publishing weekly, others biannually. In addition to the 50 best poems, she needs to chose another 50 for the long list, which won't be published, but will be mentioned.

Canada, says Uppal, “still probably has more variety of poetic styles, forms and traditions than other countries – fixed form, experimental and lyric to narrative and spoken word – from such vastly different philosophical, political, esthetic and personal perspectives. We haven’t had this dominating ethos of what it means to be Canadian, so people have been freer to write in a range of traditions.” Much of this comes from Canada’s rich multi-cultural heritage. Poems from a Middle Eastern tradition or a European one next to regionally located poetry, that’s the kind of diversity Uppal (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04) hopes will reflect.

Left: Priscila Uppal

The anthology “gives people a bird's eye view” of what Canadian poets have been working on, says Uppal. The series has proven quite popular in the US, where a separate launch is held each year. Tightrope Books is also hoping to introduce the 2011 anthology in the United Kingdom. That could tie in perfectly with Uppal’s gig as the Canadian Athletes Now Fund poet-in-residence for the upcoming 2011 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games in London.

Uppal has eight collections of poetry, including and , which was shortlisted for the 2007 Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also the author of two novels, and . Recently, she edited the first-of-its-kind anthology .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer.  Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ alumnus (right) (BA ’95) of CBC Radio will host and moderate “Celebrating 40 Years of the Juno Awards”, which will launch the new book Music from Far and Wide: Celebrating 40 Years of the Juno Awards (Key Porter Books, 2010) Saturday, Oct. 23 at 9pm at the IFOA. The event will feature three of the book’s co-authors Karen Bliss, Nick Krewen and Jason Schneider, along with special guests Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo – who wrote the book’s foreword – singer-songwriter Dan Hill and musician Emm Gryner.

The following day, another 91��ɫ alumnus (BA Spec. Hons. ’81) will be at the IFOA as one of three authors participating in The Word Doctors Are In: Master Class on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 11am. Ricci will speak about “What Every Writer Should Know”.

Poet and 91��ɫ creative writing alumna (Hons. BA ’00), editor of The Selected Gwendolyn MacEwen (Exile Editions, 2007) and author of the poetry collection Junkman's Daughter (Exile Editions, 2004), will read from her latest collection A Good Time Had by All (Exile Editions, 2010). Strimas, who works at Quill & Quire magazine and for the University of Guelph's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing, will read on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 1pm and again on Friday, Oct. 29 at 8pm.

91��ɫ English Professor (left) will read from his latest book, , Wednesday, Oct. 27 at 8pm, along with the other finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

91��ɫ English Professor (right) will be part of a roundtable discussion with IFOA Ontario in Milton Wednesday, Oct. 27, and will read from her newest work Friday, Oct. 29 at 8pm at the IFOA in Toronto.

The IFOA will once again bring writers of contemporary world literature for 11 days of readings, interviews, lectures, round table discussions and public book signings from Oct. 20 to 30.

For more information, visit the website. You can or call the Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 416-973-4000.

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, a collection of over 50 poems, will launch Tuesday, October 19, at 7:30 pm, at The Boat, 158 Augusta Ave. in Toronto’s Kensington Market. It is also the 10th anniversary launch party for Mansfield Press. All royalties from the sale of Uppal's book will go to help support athletes through , which helped fund about 80 per cent of the athletes at the Games.

The book contains haikus and other poems about the Olympic athletes and their beloved sports – whether curling, skeleton, skiing or hockey – and includes some poems Uppal wrote when she took in the Arctic Games, in between the Olympics and the Paralympics. It’s being hailed as a mingling of physical and verbal acrobatics and a dazzling competition of risky play, inventive movements and daring heights.

Left: Priscila Uppal embracing the Olympic torch as the Canadian Athletes Now Fund poet-in-residence. Photo by Chistopher Doda

“So much about poetry is having surprising language and using it in unique ways,” says (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04).  Watching Olympic athletes compete and marvelling over the strange terms attached to each sport – what Uppal calls athletic language full of metaphors and symbols – gave her plenty of inspiration.

She says the poems are accessible and amusing, and were also fun to write. Winter Sport: Poems would be of interest to sports lovers, Olympics lovers, poetry lovers, ���Ի���English and physical education teachers, as well as young reluctant readers, she says. CBC Radio featured many of her poems over the course of the Games after fans called in requesting more, as did CAN Fund and the athletes themselves.

"While some people were skeptical about elite athletes responding to poetry," Uppal admits, "the Olympians ended up being one of my most welcoming audiences ever. Every day they asked for more copies of poems and looked forward to the performances. The summer Olympians have encouraged me to take up my post in 2012 in London to write the companion volume, Summer Sport: Poems."

Right: Priscila Uppal dons her own team shirt while watching speedskating at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Photo by Chistopher Doda

Gil Adamson, author of The Outlander and Ashland, says “From one of Canada’s most dynamic poets come sports poems that are playful, funny, and full of trick moves. Uppal’s wordplay is as muscular as the athletes she celebrates.”

In addition to Uppal’s new book, the evening will launch Imagining Toronto by Amy Lavender Harris, a 91��ɫ geography faculty member in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; Goodbye, Ukulele by Leigh Nash (BA Hons. ’04), a former student of Uppal’s; At the Gates of the Theme Park by Peter Norman; and Stray Dog Embassy by Natasha Nuhanovic.

Left: Priscila Uppal has a Canadian moment. Photo by Chistopher Doda

Uppal's books include which , (which was shortlisted for the $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prize), and , and of the novels and . She is the editor of ���Ի��� and the author of .

For more information or to order the book, visit the or websites.

To read a few of Uppal’s sports poems, visit the website.

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The opening reception for the exhibition, which both Ehrenworth and Uppal will attend, will take place Thursday, Sept. 9, from 6 to 9pm at , 800 Dundas St. W., Toronto.

Right: A photograph from Daniel Ehrenworth's newest exhibit

Uppal has collaborated with Ehrenworth twice before, composing full lyrical poems, interpretations of his photographs, for his exhibitions Holocaust Dream in 2003, which was made into a book, and The Sea of Ending Pt. 1 in 2005. But this time was different. The idea for Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) was to “create poetic subtext” or “short, poetic expressions” of the photographs, says Uppal.

They both drew inspiration from the 1958 hit song Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny. The exhibition also features three audio deconstructions by Ehrenworth of a little-known recording of Sleep Walk by Canadian-born singer Betsy Brye, which features the original lyrics that Santo & Johnny wrote for the song but never recorded.

“This time I see my contribution more as a poetic conversation. We are both very interested in dream landscapes and the space and emotions we inhabit when we dream,” says Uppal. The photos embrace a range of human experience while exploring dream-states, trauma, sexuality and texture.

Left: Part of the Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) exhibit featuring the photographs of Daniel Ehrenworth and the poetry of Priscila Uppal

When Uppal first saw Ehrenworth’s photos for his new show, she immediately felt that a brief poetic missive – a line, maybe expressed by the subject of the photo, or something someone in a dream might utter – would be the perfect fit, rather than a full poem. “They’re almost like inner confessions,” she says.

Ehrenworth’s and Uppal’s artistic visions clicked. “When it works it’s so exciting,” says Uppal. For this project, she was able to enter Ehrenworth’s dream space and he was able to enter hers. “Gallery goers can enter their collective dream.” The gallery space is meant to imitate a sleepwalking state.

Uppal describes Ehrenworth's photos as dark, surreal, stark and haunting. People in the photos take on a sort of mythical, hazy appearance. They blend, at times, into the natural landscape around them. Sort of like a dream.

Her poetry will be written on the wall in charcoal next to or below each photograph. Things like: “Anything from the past bites us like insects”, “Where did you misplace your heart?”, “Shake off memories like snowflakes”, “When you’ve forgotten your phone number, the gods will call” or “I’m headed for a fictional horizon.”

Right: A Daniel Ehrenworth photo on exhibit as part of his latest mixed media installation in collaboration with Priscila Uppal

Ehrenworth is a commercial photographer and a photo-based artist, who has exhibited his work at galleries across the country, including Gallery 44 (Toronto), The MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie), The New Gallery (Calgary) and the Khyber Gallery (Halifax).

Uppal is a Toronto poet and fiction writer and the author of the poetry collections , (which was shortlisted for the $50,000 Griffin Poetry Prize), and , and of the novels and . She is the editor of ���Ի��� and the author of . She is on the Board of Directors at the Toronto Arts Council and was poet-in-residence for Canadian Athletes Now during the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic games. Time Out London recently dubbed her “Canada’s coolest poet.”

Curse.Sleep. (That’s the Thing With Trouble) will run from Thursday, Sept. 9, to Sunday, Oct. 3.

For more information and gallery hours, visit the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer. Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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She also discussed her new poetry book, , which at 8pm at the Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton St. (at Henderson Avenue) in Toronto.

The entire and runs approximately seven minutes.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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Surreal, absurdist, satirical, playful and yet, at times, deeply serious is how 91��ɫ English Professor Priscila Uppal (BA Hons. ’97, PhD ’04) describes Traumatology, her latest collection of poetry officially launching on Wednesday.

A poet and novelist, Uppal will read from during the launch on March 24 at 8pm at the Monarch Tavern, 12 Clinton St. (at Henderson Avenue) in Toronto. Refreshments will be provided, along with a cash bar and cash book table. Everyone is welcome.

Traumatology, Uppal’s sixth major collection of poetry, is a look at today’s modern physical, mental and spiritual notions of health from the traditional to the contemporary and the sublime to the ridiculous.

Uppal says people exert a lot of physical and mental energy in the contemplation of what is healthy from the first decision of the day – what to eat for breakfast – to being mindful of getting the proper amount of sleep at day’s end. Words like protein and antioxidants bombard the senses.

“I think as a society we are incredibly obsessed with ideas of health,” says , who is just completing a stint as the Canadian Athletes Now Fund poet-in-residence during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. "First Dr. Phil was supposed to fix us, now it’s Dr. Oz and the genetic and biological, instead of the psychological." Health has become part of pop culture.

“Even how we talk about it, the language we use – can we be cured, can we be fixed, can we be healed – is interesting,” says Uppal. For that reason, “some of the poems are playful; others are very deeply serious about how we deal with the sudden loss of someone. As a poet, it is fascinating material. What is the language saying, what are the symbols and metaphors? Much of the collection is like renaissance poetry of allegory.”

Left: Priscila Uppal

Two of the poems on the lighter side are “My Stomach Files a Lawsuit”, a playful, satirical look at the sins of eating, and “The Wheel of Blame”, where there is a host of external things to blame depending on the spin of the wheel, including biochemical imbalances and unresolved oedipal conflict. And “Restraining Order” has the soul forbidden to be near the brain. But Uppal also turns a serious eye to hysteria, fear and suffering. It’s a global concern. “The real struggle is knowing what to do with suffering and whether it has any meaning,” she says.

These questions around mental, physical and spiritual health have often come to visit Uppal. Part of this fascination comes from working as a pharmaceutical assistant in a drug dispensary department, from the age of 13 to 21, where she would decipher medical prescriptions and type them into a computer. Here she witnessed drug abuse by patients, as well as a willingness of the medical profession to overprescribe rather than addressing the underlying problems. “I honestly draw from that period a lot in my writing.”

That’s not the only period in her life that Uppal pulled from in writing the poems for Traumatology. At the age of two, her father had a boating accident that left him a quadriplegic. Six years later, her mother ran off. Her father, she says, is in the collection indirectly, her mother a little more. Friends, acquaintances, people she meets on the bus, perhaps, “they all make their guest appearance or cameo, bring something to the work, an anecdote or a symbol,” she says.

In her twenties, Uppal went to find her mother in Brazil. Does the poem “My Mother is One Crazy Bitch” capture some of the electrical storm of feeling brought about by the experience? Yes. “…At the checkout desks of my subconscious I am writing postcards to all dead mothers out there, all dead daughters who never had a chance to meet in this life. I collect their tears the way I have been hoping to collect my thoughts. Unknown grief is sweeter, I write…”

The two times Uppal travelled to Brazil to meet her mother – “I think I draw from a lot in mother figures I write” – will also be part of a memoir and a play that she is currently working on.

Uppal is also the author of the poetry collections , and , and of the novels and . She is the editor of ���Ի���.

To read Uppal’s blog or poems from the Olympic and Paralympic Games, visit Web site or read the poems on the Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

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