Voices from Planet X, chapbook launch
November 26th, 2025
An “Out of this World” event is scheduled for Saturday, December 6 at 7:00 PM, as author Renee Sarojini Saklikar launches her latest chapbook at the People’s Co-Op Bookstore.
The event will feature a night of “Out of This World” speculative prose and verse. Saklikar will be launching her newest chapbook from the THOTJBAP series, titled Voices from Planet X, published by above/ground press. The excerpt provided, titled “The Weather,” offers a glimpse into the work, exploring themes of catastrophic climate change and the displacement of “indentured migrants”:
“Northeast winds stripped bare branches;
great limbs felled, fir to oak, linden to strange
hybrids, contraband imports
Ficus benghalensis whispered
indentured migrants, reserve army of labour
sold to work the edges of Perimeter
Winter Portal damaged: change a whipsaw,
once gaping wide, now, minuscule,
then again huge, blasted, ice pellets strewn
snow banks eight fathoms deep, lakes and rivers,
temperatures below, below, below, then sudden
change to above, ice cracks, ferocious bellows,
chunks gaping, the roar of ice water, jade green
liquid pushing slabs below. Toss, tumble unseen.
We, shipped in, transported, rendered, contracted
we to work the change, supply lines jammed;
rumble-shake, quiet, quiet, rumble shake—
change, a portal, now minuscule; then snap!
Gaping wide, below, below, core splitting fissures
above, the sky, thinned, ozone wearing off
earth, shrugging us off:
temperatures below, below, below, then above,
once gaping wide, now, minuscule, earth’s push,
pulled, pulling against the ice fast melting—”
The evening will also feature readings from fellow speculative writers Stephen Collis, Marguerite Pigeon, Renee Rodin, and Annie Lafleur.
Autumn Greetings
The launch will take place at the People’s Co-Op Bookstore, located at 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
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