The Mundane, the Sublime, and the Fantastical
COVID meditations from literary phenom Otoniya J. Okot Bitek
Rife with the paradoxical forces of boredom and intensity, the early days of COVID-19 passed under an inescapable pall. The poems of Song & Dread seek quietude, order, refuge, and space within that shroud. They remind us of community, connectedness, and what is inherently shared. Here, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek becomes a record keeper, observing the contradictory, symbiotic relationship between the quotidian and the extraordinary. These works are of their time, while remembering an existence outside it. With a keen eye, Bitek documents the ways the strange can become normalized when there is no other option.
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek is a poet and scholar. Her collection of poetry 100 Days (University of Alberta, 2016) won the INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for poetry and the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. She is an assistant professor of Black Studies at Queen's University, where she teaches and writes in the English and Gender Studies departments.
