Within us all are questions of identity, belonging, and connection. Beth Kopes third poetry collection, Atlas of Roots, is a work of the heart that uncovers the many facets of adoption. In poems that both witness and question, Kope shares her own quest to uncover family history and answers -- finding her adoption records, questioning her parents choices, and the truth of her own conception. Moving beyond the personal, Atlas of Roots shares other stories of adoption through the voices of other adoptees and parents of both relinquished and adopted children. In seeking a name and ones own story, Kope has written a striking and courageous narrative of adoption.
Beth Kope grew up in Alberta and is honoured to live, work, and play in Victoria, BC, Coast Salish territory of Lekwungen and WSANEC nations. Kope has taught in Alberta, Adelaide, Australia and Quebec and currently works at Camosun College. She has published two poetry collections, Falling Season (Leaf Press, 2010) and Average Height of Flight (Caitlin Press, 2015), and has been included in the anthologies Refugium (Caitlin Press, 2017) and Sweet Water (Caitlin Press, 2020). She is the co-host, along with Yvonne Blomer, of the annual Forest Poet-Tree event which is part of the Victoria Festival of Authors.
"To enter the world of Atlas of Roots is to enter the world of mid-century adoption and the confusing days of a 1950s adoptee. Spinning wonder and spirals of absence, the uneasy core of human life, sorrow and loss, this collection cuts to the bone. It is heart-rending and tender, bringing us to the edge: the poets experiment in identity; her watching as shadows flinch past the fence. Kope writes knowingly, feelingly, so we can know and feel. The collection brims with longing and learning to belong, but at the speed of yearning. She claims that her tongue is rootless, but certainly her poetry is not: it will root in your memory, your mind, in your heart." Arleen Paré, author of Lake of Two Mountains
