Chris Banks reviews NMLCT

Chris Banks is a poet who always keeps me on my toes. I value his close reading, so this review of NMLCT will be one that I treasure for a long time.

"Honestly, I have not really read a poetry collection like this one. It’s a highly original book.... These spellbinding poems, at once allusive and engaging, are portents, wards against the artificial intelligence and misinformation we find so much of our modern lives are now mired in, but they are also, I think, signposts, maps for finding our way back out, through words, to our genuine selves...

"There is rigour and tension in these 16 line, formally-constrained poems, but also a sharp, restless and original consciousness that is the nucleus of this whole poetry collection. NMLCT encourages us to make new thoughts, new connections, new poems amidst the old abandoned computer code and made-to-sell cheap design work, amidst “the glitches” of background machine noise."

Check out The Woodlot and read the entire review here.

Selena Mercuri reviews NMLCT

Every writer looks forward to those reviews when the critic really understands what the book is trying to do. Selena Mercuri has done just that in her review of NMLCT in The Seaboard Review of Books. I am grateful. What a wonderful way to start the day!

"In NMLCT, Vermeersch creates a multimedia experience that mirrors the hybrid nature of contemporary digital life. The reader must navigate text, image, and code much as we navigate our daily digital environments. The poems argue for the irreplaceable value of human consciousness, intuition, and embodied experience in an age increasingly dominated by algorithmic thinking. NMLCT reminds us that the animal city, however threatened, remains our true home."

— Selena Mercuri,

The Seaboard Review of Books

Read the whole review here.

Rob McLennan reviews NMLCT

The first review of NMLCT is here, just days away from its official release. With thanks to Rob McLennan.

"Throughout the collection, Vermeersch builds his bricks of lyric narrative in lengthy and even gymnastic lines, more oriented in propulsive, almost staccato, sound than in his prior work.... The tension is palpable, shifting between an optimism for humanity or sense of doom, interspersed throughout."

Click here to read the whole review.

I'VE BEEN MEANING TO ASK YOU (INTERVIEWS)

With the official publication date of my new book just two weeks away, I am grateful to Kathryn Mockler for interviewing me for her I'VE BEEN MEANING TO ASK YOU series. I talk about memory, ghosts, and The Goonies, among other things.

Read on!

Exploring the motif of "Real Ladders"

On January 26, 2025, I completed a painting called "Real Ladders" and since then I have been exploring the visual language of the ladder motif I first used in that painting. I don't where this exploration will lead, but I am excited by the 21 paintings I've completed so far in this series. More to come!

To see more, visit my visual art page.

NMLCT: BOOK LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT

SAVE THE DATE!

I'd love it if you could join me to celebrate the launch of

Wed, Sept 24, 2025

from 7 to 10pm

at The Piston

937 Bloor Street West,

[festivities included]

Sincerely, Paul Vermeersch

Click here to see other upcoming events. 

NMLCT: Full cover reveal!

And here it is, the full cover, ready to rock! I love the hot-pink accent colour on the back!

Big thanks to Tolu Oloruntoba, Annick MacAskill, and Stuart Ross for the votes of confidence, and to David Altmejd for the sculpture.

Again, everyone at ECW Press has been a dream to work with. I am so fortunate.

Coming this September.

Click here for more information

NMLCT BKTRLR #3

NMLCT BKTRLR #3 is the third book trailer for the book NMLCT, a new collection of poetry by Paul Vermeersch, now available for preorder from ECW Press.

Preorders for the book are now available at https://ecwpress.com/products/nmlct

Music is "antibodies" by wererabbit.