Alphabet Soup

  • "The verve of these prose poems recalls the incendiary scintillation of Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon, two scribes also alluringly Latinate, also scathingly forensic."

    George Elliott Clarke, author of Whiteout: How Canada Cancels Blackness

  • "At once experimental literature and alchemical apparatus — designed to take all the flavours of one man’s life experiences and transform them into something that nourishes."

    Andrea Thompson, author of A Selected History of Soul Speak

  • "For fans of memoirs that blend deep emotion with literary artistry, Alphabet Soup is a must-read."

    Lalaa Comrie, thisblackgirlreads.ca

  • "Because Alphabet Soup is a rich stew, it’s not a collection to skim through, then put back on the bookshelf. You’ll want to digest this alphabet slowly because there’s so much flavour in each spoonful."

    Cait Gordon, #CaitTacklesTBRPile Review

  • “Alphabet Soup by @greg_frankson is a compilation of 26 poetic letters. Each addresses a letter in the alphabet and a word that begins with that letter. The collection is a delicious soup of various emotions and thoughts experienced by its author. I devoured every one of them.”

    Online reviewer @anathereader

A tasty yet experimental recipe of creative memoir in poetic prose cooked up for your consumption — one letter at a time.

Alphabet Soup is a poetic exploration of the deeper meaning discovered by stirring up the depths of one’s most personal lived experiences. Twenty-six letters, one missive addressed to each letter of the alphabet, dive into the scalding heat of memory through themes that recall and reframe love, death, joy, sorrow, victory, devastation, and more.

Using prose that is by turns startling, revelatory, humorous, sorrowful, and triumphant, these introspections on the nature of living engage the mind and heart in the difficult, unending work of grappling with one’s past in the present, with the hope it can help create a more satisfying future.

Alphabet Soup: A Memoir in Letters

Published January 2025 by Rare Machines (Dundurn Press)
ISBN 9781459750333 (Paperback, 216 pp)
9781459750340 (PDF, 160 pp)
9781459750357 (ePub, 160 pp)

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Keep track of local events, author visits, festival appearances, community functions and more where A. Gregory Frankson will engage readers with Alphabet Soup:

Alphabet Soup in the Community