Theophylline: A(n) (a)po(r)etic Migration Reading Group

Description:

In the lead up to a reading and talk by writer-in-residence Erín Moure, Western Front and The Capilano Review hosted a reading group dedicated to Moure’s book of poems, Theophylline: A Poetic Migration (Anansi, 2023).

Theophylline is a work of poetry motivated by asthma, seeking poetry’s futurity in a queer and female heritage. In it, Moure crosses a border as translator, to engage the poetry of three American modernists—Muriel Rukeyser, Elizabeth Bishop, and Angelina Weld Grimké. Moure asks: What is breath for? What is archive? Why write a poem, instead of…something else?

Facilitated by The Capilano Review’s Literary Editor Emily Fedoruk, the three weekly sessions followed the order of writers featured in Theophylline—Muriel Rukeyser, Elizabeth Bishop, and Angelina Weld Grimké—alongside supplementary texts by each author.

The workshop dates were September 9, 11, 25, 2025.