Bureau of Useless Splendour

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Chris Banks about his poetry collection, The Bureau of Useless Splendor (ECW Press, 2026). 

Poet Chris Banks is immersed in what is wondrous and strange about human connection, pop culture, and most importantly, the elusive search for understanding and hope in an accelerating century marked by socioeconomic disparity and climate change.

Banks writes direct, accessible poems with strong allusions and 100% certified “fresh” images so seasoned poetry fans and those not accustomed to the genre can both find something to enjoy. He reminds readers that everyone needs “a bushel of smiles” or “a first aid / kit of laughing gas” to poison our anxieties with joy, and he does not shy away from difficult topics like toxic masculinity or mental health struggles. “Beauty is not beauty / without the ugliness surrounding it,” Banks says.

In Bureau of Useless Splendour, Banks lets his imagination roam across the science of DNA sequencing, internet memes, space-time physics, Canadian nationalism, a lunar discussion between Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen and American poet Frank Stanford, and even reimagined fortune cookie “fortunes” — as if to illustrate that tucked away among the allusions to pop culture and Shakespeare, poems about Johannes Gutenberg and the Martian mountain Olympus Mons, there exists a dusty old office where the poet sits, creating vivid, delightful pieces and mischievous “invoices” dedicated to the beauty and wonder of this world.

Chris Banks is a Pushcart-nominated Canadian poet with eight collections of poems. He has won two national awards, and his poems have appeared across Canada and the United States. Banks runs The Woodlot, a Canadian poetry reviews and essays website. He lives and writes in Kitchener, ON.

Hollay Ghadery is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024 and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, was released with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a host on The New Books Network, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Founder of River Street, and the co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. She is also a member of The National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Nonfiction Collective, and The Writers Union of Canada. Hollay was also featured on the cover of issue 10 of The Ampersand Review. Learn more about Hollay here.