The poems in Shape Taking tend to the betwixt, beyond and out of bounds. They speak to living, dreaming and imagining in times of inner and global flux; seek connectivity in disparate things, and contend with the unreasonableness of miracle. They want to believe, with work, that the brain can change.

“How Alteration Works”, the title of the first poem in Elana Wolff’s startling new collection, Shape Taking, might well be the book’s title in an alternate universe. Wolff has forged a unique poetic voice and eye, alert to the nuances and echoes of words, things seen, and emotions felt. She is increasingly experimenting with the forms of poems taking shape. They are unpredictable, but sure in their attention and melody, reminding us the world is equally full of surprises, so that “even to ourselves / our tongues are foreign.” This is a bracing collection that will cleanse your poetic palate, and reawaken your curiosity about the world.

~ John Oughton, author of five poetry books, a mystery novel, and Higher Teaching

Elana Wolff is the author of seven collections of poetry and a collection of essays on poems. She has also co-authored, with the late Malca Litovitz, a collection of rengas; co-authored, with Susie Petersiel Berg, a limited-edition chapbook of poems; and co-translated, with Menachem Wolff, poems from the Hebrew by Georg Mordechai Langer. Elana’s poems and creative nonfiction pieces have appeared in Canada and internationally and have garnered awards. She has taught English for Academic Purposes at York University in Toronto and at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She currently lives and works in Thornhill, Ontario. Elana’s sixth collection, Swoon (Guernica Editions, 2020), received the 2020 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry. Shape Taking is her seventh book of poems.