August 31, 2025
Aidan Chafe
Aidan Chafe is the author of the poetry collections Gospel Drunk (University of Alberta Press) and Short Histories of Light (McGill-Queen's University Press), that was longlisted for the 2019 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He has also published two chapbooks Right Hand Hymns (Frog Hollow Press) and Sharpest Tooth (Anstruther Press). His work has appeared in journals and literary magazines in Canada, United States, England and Australia. He lives and works on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (Vancouver, BC).
They say every man is born
with a kingdom of bunny rabbits
inside of him. Every day he must
resist the impulse to kill one.
A lot of the violence in my poetry comes from growing up in a culture that encourages these behaviors as a part of becoming a man. My poetry is an exorcism of sorts. And my holy water is tenderness. The term ‘fragile masculinity’ is so true, because the slightest softening can disarm all the bravado.