Typographical Smallness and Lyric Brevity in Virginia Konchan’s That Tree Is Mine

Abstract

Smallness, like brevity, might be a virtue in things literary and non-literary. Canadian poet Virginia Konchan is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Any God Will Do (2018), The End of Spectacle (2020), and Hallelujah Time (2021); a collection of short stories titled Anatomical Gift (2017); and four chapbooks, including Vox Populi (2015), The New Alphabets (2019), Empire of Dirt (2019), and That Tree Is Mine (2020). Drawing on Jonathan Culler’s (2015) insights into the nature of the lyric and the lessons of the new materialisms (Alaimo, 2008, 2010; Tuana 2008), this essay explores how Konchan’s chapbook is punctuated by gnomic resonances and marked by linguistic economy, as well as the precision and experimental spirit of an avant-garde lyric poetry. Konchan succeeds in making her words sing with clarity and moving conviction when writing about myth or the more-than-human world.