Naturally Speaking (poetry)

The cover of Naturally Speaking by Sandra Alland. The cover is red, with the title and author name encased in a white-gray frame. The book’s title is in a playful, almost hand-written font, whereas the author’s name is in a standard font.

Order Info

  • SOLD OUT; contact San for more info

Description

  • winner of the 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award
  • limited edition hand-sewn book with French flaps
  • poetry and essay examining disability poetics, gender and assistive technology; 32 pages

Naturally Speaking is Sandra Alland’s poetic love affair with voice-activated software. Published by Toronto’s Espresso Books, Naturally Speaking is a limited-edition, hand-bound, numbered art book of poems and a short essay. In this collection, Alland composes at the bizarre intersection of disability poetics, assistive technology, queer feminism, gender and translation.

Excerpts from Naturally Speaking have been published in Fit To Work: Poets Against ATOS (eds Burnhope, Mayer, Sluman) and Versus Versus: 100 Poems from Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent Poets (Bloodaxe Books, ed. Rachael Boast).

Watch/listen to a captioned video of San reading from Naturally Speaking on YouTube.

Reviews

“Elegant and electric… this collection is a truth towards ineffable laughter and new language junctions. Alland’s poems come from the disquieting collaboration between artificial intelligence and speak to/from/of the processes of translation, identity and pain.”
– Sandra Ridley and kevin mcpherson, 2013 bpNichol Chapbook Award