
Basma Kavanagh
Basma Kavanagh is a poet, visual artist, and letterpress printer who lives and works in Nova Scotia, in Mi’kma’ki. She produces artist’s books under the imprint Rabbit Square Books. She has published two collections of poetry, Distillō (Gaspereau, 2012), and Niche (Frontenac, 2015), which won the 2016 Lansdowne Prize for Poetry, and was a finalist for the 2019 NS Masterworks Arts Award. The book-length poem, Ruba’iyat for the Time of Apricots (Frontenac 2018), was shortlisted for the 2019 J.M. Abraham Poetry award, and won the Book Publishers Association of Alberta’s Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry Book of the Year. Basma has taught workshops and courses on poetry, printmaking, bookbinding, and letterpress, and has formally and informally mentored emerging artists and writers. She has been an artist in residence at the Penland School of Crafts, the Banff Centre, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2018 Ruba’iyat for the Time of Apricots (poetry), Frontenac House Press, Calgary AB ISBN 978-1-927823-81-1
2015 Niche (poetry collection), Frontenac House Press, Calgary AB ISBN 978-1-927823-30-9
2012 Distillō (poetry collection), Gaspereau Press, Kentville NS ISBN 978-1-554471-15-7
Anthologies
2018 “Entangled with Light”,in Aubade: Poetry and Prose from Nova Scotia Writers, Boularderie Island Press, Boularderie, NS ISBN 978-1-926448-26-8
2018 “Mittelschmerz” in Gush: Menstrual Manifestos for our Times, Frontenac House Press, Calgary AB ISBN 978-927823-79-8
2011 “Perfume” in Perfect Dragonfly, Red Dragonfly Press, Northfield, MN ISBN 978-1-890193-33-1
2010 “Transformers”, in Decomposition from Lost Horse Press, ID ISBN 978-0-9844510-0-5
Awards
Rubai’yat for the Time of Apricots
2019 Winner BPAA Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry
2019 Shortlist J.M. Abraham Poetry Award
Niche
2019 Finalist Nova Scotia Masterworks Art Award
2016 Shortlisted BPAA Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry
2016 Winner Lansdowne Prize for Poetry
Other
2019 Co-winner Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize
2017 Shortlisted Gwendolyn MacEwen Poetry Prize
2017 Shortlisted New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Prize
2014 Finalist CBC Poetry Prize “Coda”
