A Vibrant Exploration of Women, Poetry, and Imagination

Carolyn Zonailo’s essays in The Letter Z: On Poetics take readers on a journey through the craft, vision, and history behind modern Canadian poetry. From personal reflections to critical insights on pioneering women poets, this collection celebrates creativity, imagination, and the power of poetic expression. Essential reading for anyone curious about poetry and the minds behind it.

“Carolyn Zonailo's poetry is marked by its attention to physical detail, to emotional nuance, and to sensual presence.”
—Douglas Barbour, The Canadian Forum

“In Zonailo's poetry the quotidian is always under instruction from the marvelous. Looking out of a clear eye, Zonailo tried to find a sure music to translate what she sees into the wonder of poetry.”
—Bruce Whiteman

“Here is a distinctive and individual voice. Her ability to delineate a physical landscape, and transform that landscape into metaphors, is one of the strengths of Zonailo's work.”
—Marya Fiamengo

“The aesthetic underlying the writing of Carolyn Zonailo is her belief that poetry is an essential human activity; for Zonailo, the poem relates to, and recreates, the phenomenal world, through recognition and love.”
—Jean Mallinson, PhD