About
Renée M. Sgroi
Author photo by Elle Marie Photography
Renée M. Sgroi (she/her) edited the poetry anthology, Written Tenfold (Poetry Friendly Press), and has published two poetry collections. life print, in points (erbacce-press, 2020) and In a Tension of Leaves and Binding (Guernica Editions, 2024), which was on the 2024 CBC Books list of poetry collections to watch, and its November preview,. In 2025, the book was shortlisted for an International Rubery Award.
Renée's poetry has been published in Room Magazine, FreeFall Magazine, yolk literary magazine, Augur Magazine, Funicular Magazine, Parentheses Journal, Literary Review of Canada, Pinhole Poetry, The Prairie Journal, The Windsor Review, and the /tƐmz/ review. Renée won second prize in the 2024 Dr. William Henry Drummond contest judged by Keith Garebian, and was a semi-finalist in the 2023 Red Wheelbarrow Prize judged by Ellen Bass. She also won second prize in the 2022 Carmen Ziolkowski Poetry Prize, and out of 9,000 international entries, was the runner-up in the UK's 2020 erbacce poetry prize.
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 post-secondary education for more than twenty-five 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.
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: