Renée M. Sgroi
Poet and AWA Writing Workshop Facilitator
Author photo by Elle Marie Photography
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Latest Release
In a Tension
of Leaves and Binding
(Guernica Editions, 2024)
2025 International Rubery Award Shortlisted Book
​
CBC Fall 2024 and November Poetry Book
​
By examining our relationships to the natural world, these poems aim to disrupt our assumptions about poetry, meaning, and language through their play with form. An exploration of grief that grapples with the possibilities for hope against the limits of language, In a Tension of Leaves and Binding offers readers new ways to consider our place within the environment.
From the 2025 International Rubery Award Judges:
"She demonstrates beautifully a deft attention to different ways of writing, different forms and different conjugations of voice, style, image and vernacular."
Allan Briesmaster, author of Windfor (Ekstasis Editions) and Later Findings (Ekstasis Editions) calls my book:
"a big, bristling
assemblage that is bound to enlighten – and move – its readers multiply, in highly unusual ways."
Divine Angubua, at The Varsity, writes:
"In a Tension of Leaves and Binding is a meditation on attention itself ... The collection challenges, unsettles, and ultimately enriches, reminding us that profound truths await us even in the smallest corners of our world."
Lynn Tait, author of You Break It, You Buy It (Guernica Editions), writes:
"Sgroi’s poems explore the mystery of living organisms we tend to take for granted. This collection makes us consider the world around us and the languages spoken we do not listen to. Renée M. Sgroi is listening."
Praise for Renée's Writing
Darlene Madott, author of nine books, including Dying Times and Winners and Losers (Guernica Editions) says:
"we participate in [the book's] earnest play – to the point of holding book up to mirror, until we realize all the poems are mirrors, we are mirrors, words cast actual shadows, our little lives hold meaning. Thank you, Renée M. Sgroi, for the holy energy with which your fingers caressed this tangled earth of relationships and leaves."
Kim Fahner, author of The Donoghue Girl (Latitude 46) and The Pollination Field (Turnstone Press) states that the book contains:
"unexpected ripples of grief that follow a loss, surprising and occurring when least expected. These pangs are not to be mapped or reined in by a contrived socially imposed timeline; the heart simply won’t have it."
KV Skene, author of Seasonal Adjustments (Wet Ink Press), writes that my book is:
"just what I needed. From first to last it definitely displays a distinctively divergent voice ... a thoroughly enjoyable (haunting) read."
Marsha Barber, author of Kaddish for My Mother (Borealis Press), writes:
"This book is a wonder, playing with form and language and stretching the boundaries of what the very best poetry can achieve. These nature-rooted poems, take the ordinary and, through the poet’s alchemy, transform the everyday into something magical. This book, dazzles “enough to silver, to shine, gold and chiaroscuro with light.” At once erudite and inviting, here is a beautifully written collection of fresh and interesting poems that is as earthy, rich and lush as the gardens Sgroi celebrates."
Ed Seaward, author of Fair (Porcupine's Quill), says:
"For those of you who read poetry, who engage in poetry, I recommend that you engage this book of poetry."
Poet and essayist Mark Liebenow writes:
"I’ve read these poems over and over because they challenge me and each time I see a bit more of how they are interconnected."
WHAT WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS SAY
Love the energy you bring to the online format!
-- Danielle M.
This was a great workshop!
-- Workshop Participant
intriguing prompts
-- Workshop Participant
Enjoyable
-- Workshop Participant
Renée is skillful at creating a warm and supportive learning environment.
-- Dianne P.
Inspiring
-- Workshop Participant
I have one poem and the beginnings of 2 more. This seldom happens to me at a workshop.
-- F.S.R.
"I would definitely take the opportunity to do another workshop with Renée"
-- R. M.
About
Renée M. Sgroi (she/her) edited the poetry anthology, Written Tenfold (Poetry Friendly Press, 2018), and has published two poetry collections, life print, in points (erbacce-press, 2020) and In a Tension of Leaves and Binding (Guernica Editions, 2024), shortlisted for an International Rubery Award, and a CBC Books 2024 fall poetry book preview list and CBC Books 2024 November anticipated book. Renée's poems have most recently been published in such literary journals as Room Magazine, FreeFall Magazine, yolk literary magazine, Augur Magazine, Funicular Magazine, Parentheses Journal, Literary Review of Canada, and Pinhole Poetry.
Renée is a certified Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) affiliate, and offers writing workshops to emerging writers using the Amherst method. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Science degree in Creativity and Change Leadership from SUNY Buffalo State University, and has taught adult learners for more than 25 years. A member of The Writers’ Union of Canada, the League of Canadian Poets, Canadian Authors Association, the Association of Italian-Canadian Writers, and The Ontario Poetry Society, Renée is also a contributing editor for Arc Poetry Magazine.