Canisia Lubrin

Canisia Lubrin (born 1984) is a writer, critic, professor, poet and editor. Originally from St. Lucia, Lubrin now lives in Whitby, Ontario, Canada.

Life Lubrin was born in St. Lucia and studied in Canada, completing a bachelor's degree at York University and a graduate degree in creative writing at the University of Guelph.

Career Her first collection of poems, Voodoo Hypothesis, was published in 2017 by Wolsak & Wynn. Voodoo Hypothesis rejects the contemporary and historical systems that paint black people as inferior. The book also addresses the legacy of slavery in Lubrin's native Caribbean. Voodoo Hypothesis was nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. In addition, Voodoo Hypothesis was named one of 2017's best books in Canadian poetry by CBC Books and one of the 10 "must-read" books of 2017 by the League of Canadian Poets. CBC Books also named Lubrin a Black Canadian writer to watch in 2018.

Lubrin's short story "Into Timmins" is anthologized in The Unpublished City: Vol. I, edited by Dionne Brand, finalist for the 2018 Toronto Book Awards.

In addition to her career as a poet, Lubrin is Associate Professor in the School of Theatre, English and Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. She was appointed the Inaugural Shaftesbury Writer in Residence of Victoria College at the University of Toronto and worked as an editor with Buckrider Books, an imprint of Canadian independent press Wolsak & Wynn from 2018 to 2021. She was also a director of the Pivot Reading Series, a biweekly poetry reading series in Toronto. For 2017–2018, Lubrin was a Writer-in-Residence with Poetry In Voice. In 2019, Lubrin was a Writer-in-Residence in the Department of English at Queen's University.

Lubrin's second poetry volume, the book-length, genre-bending poem The Dyzgraphxst, was published by McClelland & Stewart in 2020 to international acclaim.

In 2021, Lubrin was named one of two winners, alongside Natalie Scenters-Zapico, of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in poetry. Dionne Brand was also named a winner of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in the fiction category, the first time in the history of that award that two Canadians were named as laureates in the same year. and for the 2020 Trillium Book Award for Poetry. The book also won four awards, including the overall OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the Derek Walcott Prize and the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize.

In 2021, publisher McClelland & Stewart announced Lubrin as their new poetry editor.

In 2024, Lubrin’s first book of fiction, Code Noir, was published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, with a US edition released by Soft Skull Press in 2025. The book was the winner of the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the 2025 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Code Noir was shortlisted for the Writers' Trust of Canada's Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2024 Governor General's Awards, the Trillium Book Award, the Balcones Prize, the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Literature of the Fantastic, and longlisted the 2026 Story Prize.

In 2025, Lubrin's third book of poetry, The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem, a book-length elegy, was published by McClelland & Stewart, and it went on to win the poetry category of the 2026 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for English Poetry in 2026.

Works

Poetry Augur. Gap Riot Press, 2017. Voodoo Hypothesis. Buckrider Books, 2017. The Dyzgraphxst. McClelland & Stewart, 2020. Qué Nuevo Mapa / What New Map. Ediciones Franz, 2024. Translated by Adalber Salas Hernández The World After Rain: Anne’s Poem. McClelland & Stewart, 2025.

Fiction Code Noir. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2024.

Anthologies The Journey Prize Stories 33. McClelland & Stewart, 2023.

The Unpublished City: Volume 2. Book*hug, 2018.