Matthew Walsh

Born in Halifax, Matthew Walsh is a queer poet who grew up just outside Musquodobit Harbour, along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia. Small towns and rural settings haunt the poems in These are not the potatoes of my youth, Matthew’s debut poetry collection. The collection questions what it means to be an individual in a place where “normal” isn’t in accord with your own feelings and desires. At times serious and at times humorous, Matthew never shies away from the complexities of growing up queer in a homophobic and rigidly religious community. Matthew doesn’t confine their work to the Maritimes; their poems use the vast landscape of Canada as a background, travelling to areas of Quebec, Banff, and Vancouver.