Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gay Girl Prayers | 2024 | Emily R. Austin | Buy |
Gay Girl Prayers was published by Brick Books in March 2024 and named a CBC Best Book of Poetry that year. It was also a finalist for the 2025 Archibald Lampman Award. The collection approaches religious language not with hostility but with a kind of playful reclamation, treating the structures of prayer and scripture as a form worth adapting rather than discarding.
The poems borrow their titles and formats from familiar religious texts, often adjusting just enough to shift who the text is speaking to and about. The tone moves between irreverence and genuine tenderness.
Austin has spoken about the way Catholic guilt and queer identity are not always as incompatible as they seem, and the collection makes space for readers who grew up with both. It sits alongside her novels as part of a consistent interest in characters and speakers navigating institutions and traditions that were not built with them in mind.