Mark Laliberte

@originobscure.bsky.social

Artist/Author/Designer • Book Fiend • Clutter Cultist • Collaborationist • Curiosity Hunter • Gentle Extremist TM — Co-founder of MA|DE (debut collection ‘ZZOO’ out Feb ‘25) — http://ma-de.ca + @madeprojects.bsky.social

Hey Windsor: LEVEL-UP YOUR CAREER! — Looking forward to being a panelist TONIGHT (Wed Oct 15, 2025, 5:30pm) for Arts Council Windsor & Region’s ‘Creatives at Work’ workshop series, alongside Jade Wallace & Nadja Pelkey … this event is free to attend — at ArtSpeak Gallery (1942 Wyandotte St E) …

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This past weekend MA|DE finally had the opportunity to launch ZZOO in Windsor at the always supportive Biblioasis Bookshop as part of their Canadian Independent Bookstore Day celebrations. A big cheer for everyone who came out to support us; it was a packed house. We truly felt the hometown love! 🙂

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This past weekend we went on the second leg of our ZZOO tour: first stop London, ON at Jenny Berkel's lovely new Little Wren Books space (cleverly collocated with a flower shop)!

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Always a pleasure to chat with Andrew French for their poetry podcast Page Fright! In MA|DE's first appearance on the podcast, we talked with Andrew about ZZOO, the challenges of collaboration, what Mark and Jade have learned from each other, balancing a thousand different projects at once...

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We weren't sure what to expect from a launch in Guelph, ON; Jade had never launched there and Mark hadn't launched there for several years. But Guelph well exceeded our non-expectations. ANAF was packed, and the mix of local and visiting readers, including...

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Our premiere launch for ZZOO, which happened in our old home city of Toronto a couple weeks ago, ended up being a wonderful way to bring our book out into the wild for the first time. It was lovely to catch up with so many friends, to be hosted by the charming Queen Books...

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After 6+ years collaborating together MA|DE is FINALLY GOING ON TOUR to promote our debut full-length poetry collection, ZZOO! 🐍🫏🦆We hope you'll be able to join us at one of these launches.

FEB 28 TORONTO > Queen Books
MAR 01 GUELPH > ANAF Club 344
MAR 12 WINDSOR > Biblioasis Bookshop
APR 12 LONDON > Little Wren Books
APR 13 ST. CATHARINES > Niagara Artists Centre
JUN 18 PETERBOROUGH > Take Cover Books
JUN 19 KINGSTON > Novel Idea
JUN 21 OTTAWA > Ottawa Small Press Book Fair
JUN 23 HAMILTON > Hamilton Public Library

🙀 ‘ZZOO’ WEEKENDER — week 3 of photographically highlighting our variant covers and their pet names … this one is the SERPENTINE version (each nickname is noted on the back cover next to the bar code) — 👁 the eye on this cover is a human one (yes, we are animals too) 🪱

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Time for another EXCERPT FROM ‘ZZOO’: a notable poem from the second section (of four) of the book (this one is ‘Land’) is “As the Next Day Dawned.” It deifies/mythologizes goats who learn to walk upright. Often, in real life these are simply animals born without forelegs.

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HEY WINDSOR: Signed copies of ZZOO — in all 5 cover variants! — now available at @biblioasis_bookshop … we stopped in to double-sign a stack of copies yesterday … get ‘em while they last P.S. official launch scheduled at the bookstore for MAR 13 — special guest readers announcement coming soon 🙂

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(In the time since we wrote it, Tahlequah went on to have another calf, her third who survived, but her fourth calf, born in 2024, sadly also passed away and was again carried alongside her mother in a seeming ritual of grief.)

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EXCERPT FROM ZZOO—One of our favourite poems from the first of four sections of the book (this one is ‘Water’) is “The Extended Mourning of Orca-J35.” You may remember Orca J35, aka Tahlequah, from the news in 2018, when she was observed carrying her dead second-born calf alongside her for 17 days.

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First trip to Detroit of 2025 — came home with several books, including: JG BALLARD’s final short story collection in hardcover 🔥 ‘The Bridge’ a collaboratively-written horror novel ⚡️ ‘Dark Dreamers’ a book of interviews with authors 🧟‍♂️ + a few new additions to my ‘Paperbacks from Hell’ collection 📚

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WHAT IS ZZOO? You keep hearing us talk about our (MA|DE's) debut full-length poetry collection ZZOO from Palimpsest Press. But what exactly is this book even about?

At a time when binaristic and hierarchical relations are being readily interrogated, MA|DE — a unity of two voices fused into a single, poetic third — takes up a critique of the human-animal divide in their full-length debut, ZZOO. From the depths of the oceans to the outer reaches of the sky, a menagerie of species trade off time in the limelight, none of them solely occupying the central space on the global stage. MA|DE’s collaborative practice foregrounds interdependence, outward focus, shared spaces and non-hierarchical thinking, all of which emerge allegorically in interzonal poems that are as richly realized as they are formally eclectic. This wild-blooded collection turns conventional exhibitionism on its head, treating humans and animals as equal subjects of art, science and selfhood. ZZOO is a bestiary for the modern world.Covers of ZZOO fanned out in a semi-circle.MA|DE
ZZOO
2025 Anstruther Books / Palimpsest Press
Edited by Jim Johnstone
124 pages trade paperback perfect binding
$21.95 CAD/USD
Collection available in 5 limited-editing cover designs: FOXHOLE, TANNIAN, SERPENTINE, INSECTOID, COSMICIST
All 5 variants are releasing in spring 2025: choose your favourite cover, pre-order now!

I’m in a group show celebrating ARTCITE INC’s 40th anniversary as an artist-run centre here in Windsor — the last event ever at their current location (they’ll open a new space in the spring along the Ford City strip of Droulliard)

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