NOW AVAILABLE
Pandemic Love and other Affinities contains work by 72 Canadian & international contributors — poets, experimental poets, visual artists, prose writers, and photographers. The Anthology is an amalgam of the work chosen by our guest editors, expressive of the theme, how do we conceive of ‘love’ in the midst of global pain, suffering, illness, confusion, loss; the tireless business of care in the midst of the international COVID pandemic crisis. We believe the results formulate an evocative picture of our times, a collection of depth and breadth to cherish in these complicated years and for the future.
The book’s lead editor, Moira J. Saucer writes in the Foreword:
Many of the works here have a surreal feel, as if their creators are submerged in disorienting worlds of dreams and nightmares encountering existential threats to everything familiar, everything loved... We hope that Pandemic Love and Other Affinities will serve as an enduring archive of the human heart, showing how we lived and loved during the Pandemic.
As part of this special project, many contributors have shared their audio readings. You’ll find a list of the available readings on the Books menu (as a sub-menu for Pandemic Diaries). Please scroll down for a reading by Preston Smith.
Softcover Edition:
For orders in the US and internationally, including shipping
US $15.99 shipping 
For orders in Canadian dollars and shipping inside Canada only
US 21.99 + $8.00 shipping
SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER: (to support Ice Floe Press):
For orders in the US and internationally, including shipping
US $20.99
For orders in Canadian dollars and shipping inside Canada only
CAD $34.00 + $15.99:
Preston Smith reads: Quarantine Love Poem
We have invited a few of the contributors to read their work, either in a video-presentation, or sound file as an accompaniment to the project, which shall be available on an adjunct to the order page. These will be added as we go along towards the August publication date. We wanted to start this time-based media addition, however, below with Los Angeles-based queer poet, Preston Smith, whose love-poem, ‘Quarantine Love Poem’, was the catalyst for our decision to create this Anthology when the poem arrived in our in-box for a corollary series, the ongoing Pandemic Dispatches project, curated by our EIC/publisher, Robert Frede Kenter. Here is Preston ushering us all, with mystic fashion, to the production and emergence of our 140-page Anthology. Preston sends out a video hello from LA to all contributors, potential readers and purchasers of the book. We thank everyone in advance for reading, for buying, for recommending, listening and engaging with our press, this true labour of love, and all our ongoing work.
To help support the continued existence of Ice Floe Press we are making a very small run of a special hardcover edition of the Anthology available (see below). To light, peace, beauty and wonder; Blessings.
Ice Floe publisher/EIC, midwife, robert frede kenter ❤️💕
an excerpt from:
Quarantine Love Poem
I never thought I’d say I fell in love
during a global pandemic. I find that
love in the Anthropocene is tragedy
except for when a single sunflower sprouts.
The only pandemic we knew was history
books and the violence of the word victor.
According to Google, there are 2,175 miles
between a vaccine and a beating heart
and each is etched in early baptismal blush.
The Anthology Contributors:
Ewoenam Akahoho, Roseline Mgbodichinma Anya-Okorie, Akesha Baron, Ronna Bloom, Yasmine Bolden, Velid Beganovic Borjen, Paul Brookes, Barney Ashton-Bullock, Matthew Burnside, Sue Chenette, Marian Christie, Defne Cizakca, Geraldine Clarkson, Cathy Daley, Nabina Das, Shome Dasgupta, Satya Dash, Martins Deep, Peach Delphine, Steve Denehan, Olga Dermott-Bond, Chelsea Dingman, Damien Donnelly, Birgit Lund Elston, K. Eltinaé, M.S. Evans, Suchi Govindarajan, Catherine Graham, Sue Finch, Kari Flickinger, Roger Hare, Matthew E. Henry, Elisabeth Horan, Rahma O. Jimoh, Silas Jones, Agunbiade Kehinde, Robert Frede Kenter, Rose Knapp, Laurie Koensgen, Henneh Kyereh Kwaku, Emma Lee, Robynne Limoges, V.C. McCabe, Spangle McQueen, Jenny Mitchell, Hasan Namir, Marcelle Newbold, Twila Newey, Lizzie Olesker, Charlotte Oliver, Niall M. Oliver, Bola Opaleke, Kunjana Parashar, Serena Piccoli, Maria S. Picone, Kushal Poddar, Lee Potts, Whiskey Radish, Khalisa Rae, Vismai Rao, Larissa Reid, Monty Reid, Andres Rojas, Moira J. Saucer, Anna Saunders, Preston Smith, Ankh Spice, Alina Stefanescu, Samuel Strathman, Claire Trévien, Bunkong Tuon, Margaret Viboolsittiseri
IceFloe Press 