My book is here!

And an exciting update about my Regina launch

Spenser Smith

Sep 7, 2023

A man with long hair, smiling, holds up a book titled "A brief relief from hunger"

A brief relief from hunger is finally here!

It arrived on Tuesday, which happened to be my 10-year recovery anniversary.

When I took the first copy out of the box, I was struck by the cover—it looks even better in print!

Thanks to Syd Danger for creating an illustration that perfectly captures the book.

And, of course, thank you to everyone who made the book possible—my peers at VIU and UBC, my poetry teachers, Gordon Hill Press, the recovery community, Harper, my family. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am so grateful.

If you’d like to purchase a copy, you can order from Gordon Hill Press, Amazon, Indigo, or your local bookstore.

You can also buy a copy from me directly (I can ship anywhere), which allows me to retain a larger portion of the proceeds.

Co-readers added to Regina launch

I am super excited to announce that I’ll have two co-readers at my Regina launch: Courtney Bates-Hardy and Tea Gerbeza!

ID: promotional graphic for the launch of A BRIEF RELIEF FROM HUNGER by Spenser Smith. It features the title of the book in large sans serif font and the following text across the top: Book Launch / Saturday Sept 23 at 7 pm.” Across the bottom, more text: Tuppenny Coffee and Books Regina.” There are circular photos of all the readers to the right of the large text. End.

Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of House of Mystery (2016) and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Her second full-length collection, Anatomical Venus, is coming out in Spring 2024 from Radiant Press. Her poems have appeared in Vallum, Event, CAROUSEL, PRISM, and The Best Canadian Poetry, among others. She is queer and disabled, and one-third of a writing group called The Pain Poets.

Tea Gerbeza is a queer disabled and neurodivergent poet, writer, and multimedia artist. Her debut poetry book, How I Bend Into More, is forthcoming in 2025 with Palimpsest Press.

Media coverage

So far, I’ve participated in a handful of interviews about the book. Here are a couple of stories, with more to come soon.