Stephen Collis

Stephen Collis is the author of fifteen books of poetry and prose, including The Commons (2008), the BC Book Prize–winning On the Material (2010), and Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten (2018) – all published by Talonbooks. A History of the Theories of Rain (2021) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for poetry, and in 2019 Collis was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Latner Poetry Prize. The Middle (2024), the second volume in a trilogy, was published in October 2024, and Knock Down House, an experimental memoir, was published by Pamenar Press in 2025. In 2026 he will deliver the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet Lecture at Vancouver Island University. He lives on Burnaby Mountain, unceded Coast Salish Territory, and teaches poetry and poetics at Simon Fraser University.

On the Material

Once in Blockadia

A History of the Theories of Rain