About Lara Bozabalian

Lara Ann Bozabalian is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, The Cartographer’s Skin (Piquant Press), a Canadian bestseller, and Tourist (Tightrope Books). Her work has appeared widely in prominent literary journals, and she has been invited to present at literary festivals across Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Singapore. A featured speaker at TEDx (“Passion and Poetry”), her voice and work were also at the heart of Crowd the Schoolhouse, a short documentary that won Best Writing and Best Use of Genre at the Hot Docs Documentary Challenge.

Recognized for her compelling voice and civic engagement, Lara was named Toronto’s Best Poet by NOW Magazine in both 2014 and 2015. Her poem “The New School,” written in response to the Parkland school shootings, was selected for Rattle’s “Poets Respond” and later featured by Poetry in Voice / Les voix de la poésie in both their Senior Anthology and Come Together: A Mixtape Anthology, edited by Brendan McLeod. In 2022, she was invited to speak at York University’s international conference Lessons from the Pandemic, sharing insights from two years ofcollaborative writing with other mothers. In April 2025, Lara will present at the 2025 Niagara University Teacher Education Conference on The New School, her upcoming collection of visual poetry (illustrated by Una Janicijevic)

Lara is currently completing The Poetry of Public Places, a large-scale installation and research project supported by a Canada Council for the Arts Research & Creation Grant. This interdisciplinary work explores how poetry can disrupt and reimagine public spaces by embedding verse into the physical and digital landscapes of everyday life. Drawing on themes of motherhood, invisible labour, and the voices too often left out of dominant narratives, the project seeks to elevate stories that are quietly radical—domestic, intergenerational, and grounded in care.

Through a series of collaborations, community engagements, and site-specific interventions, Lara’s work invites the public to encounter poetry in unexpected places, reframing sidewalks, windows, and communal spaces as sites of reflection, resistance, and relationality. The project engages with questions around who gets to speak, what counts as art, and how we might build more inclusive, emotionally intelligent public spheres. With a focus on de-centering dominant narratives and amplifying marginalized perspectives—especially those of women, caregivers, and racialized communities—The Poetry of Public Places blurs the boundaries between the intimate and the civic, making space for stories that shape how we live and belong.

As the Head of English at a public high school, Lara has been a dynamic force in arts education. She founded Be Heard: Festival of Student Voices, a large-scale initiative that connected over 3,000 student writers with internationally renowned spoken word artists through workshops and performances. A longtime advocate for youth writing and Indigenous literary engagement, Lara was invited to co-author NBE3U, the first YRDSB English course dedicated to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit voices. The course now serves as a model across the district.

Equally dedicated to community arts, Lara is a founding member of Toronto Poetry Project, which produces Canada’s most successful spoken word series, including Toronto Poetry Slam, BAM Youth Slam, and city-wide writing workshops. As a spoken word artist, she has represented Toronto at the Individual World Poetry Slam, Women of the World Poetry Slam, and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.

 

How has the writing of poetry affected your life? (Glenda Jackson, Host; Coburg Poetry Workshop)

The writing of poetry has, quite simply, offered me a better way to live in the world. I deeply, humbly love what poems can do, and I strive to be the highest version of myself in creating them. Through the challenges of articulation, I have become more patient and contemplative with myself and others. I find myself listening much more consciously to the world, and to my experiences, than when I was a younger person. Loving something enough to strive for fluency, and appreciating how long of a road it takes to get there, has probably been the greatestlesson; I am continually amazed at how this relationship grows, falters, renews, strengthens. I am continually amazed that I never walk away. There is something about this process that clears me out, and leaves me open for new experiences. I know that I would not have become the person (or teacher) that I am, without a heart that beats for poetry.