The writer, musician and theatre artist Brendan McLeod discusses his debut poetry collection Friends Without Bodies (Write Bloody North, 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Friends Without Bodies by Brendan McLeod (Write Bloody North, 2022). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Friends Without Bodies

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A new poetry collection, Friends Without Bodies is a sharp, sometimes amusing, always perceptive record of one writer’s Covid-19 pandemic experience. Brendan McLeod is a performing artist, and when gigs got cancelled in March 2020, he started writing. The pieces in the book are poetry that look at the experience a lot of us had with isolation, fear, loneliness, hysteria, and emotional upheaval. They’re a great capsule of what happened to its author, and the world around him, us essentially, riding through the waves of the virus. Mr. McLeod, who joins me now, navigates the angst he and so many of us felt, as well as chronicles the trauma of not just the pandemic, but the former president of the United States, the mass shooting in the spring of 2020 in Nova Scotia, the George Floyd killing, and so many other shared experiences that ran parallel to the pandemic. I’ll ask Brendan about his experience dating, as well as whether we’re better as a society, culture talking about mental health. Brendan McLeod is a writer, theatre artist, and musician. He is the founder of The Fugitives, the acclaimed folk group signed by Borealis Records. Visit his website at www.brendanmcleod.ca where you can read about his work and career. This new book, his debut poetry collection, is published by Write Bloody North. He joined me from Toronto last week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Brendan McLeod; Mr. McLeod, good morning.

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