When rob asked me if working for a publisher gave me a different outlook on poetry and poets, I was in the thick of acquisitions, and all I could think about was how much books can change from the initial manuscript to the published version the public sees. There are so many edits, revisions, versions, and cuts—especially cuts. Poems we hold dear don’t end up making the final cut.
When I finalized edits for Heliotropia, I had a folder of poems that didn’t quite fit the direction the book took, or poems that repeated themes that didn’t need repeating. When my book came out, I was too busy touring to send these solo poems off to magazines. When the promotional dust settled, it was too late, and I felt too disconnected from the poems and from the process of submitting to magazines to reach into that folder.
For this folio, I reached out to poets with recent or soon forthcoming poetry collections. I asked them for a poem that, for whatever reason, was part of an early version of their book, but isn’t in the version we buy and read. I didn’t ask why these poems were cut, but I will say that the reason isn’t that the poem itself isn’t good enough. I hope this folio gives a peek at the many-layered process of putting together a poetry manuscript, and makes you curious enough to check out the fantastic books of the poets featured.
Manahil Bandukwala
is the author of Heliotropia (Brick Books 2024; shortlisted for the Pat
Lowther Award, the Raymond Souster Award, and the Ottawa Book Award, and winner
of the Archibald Lampman Award) and MONUMENT (Brick Books 2022).
She was selected as a Writer’s Trust of Canada Rising Star in 2023. See her
work at manahilbandukwala.com.
