David Huebert
Biography
David Huebert is from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He completed a PhD in American Literature at the University of Western Ontario. Since then, Huebert has taught at Western University, Dalhousie University and King’s University College. Huebert was the Writer in Residence at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton from 2020-2021. He now teaches in the Foundation Year Programme at The University of King’s College in Halifax. Huebert has won the Walrus Poetry Prize, the CBC Short Story Prize, the Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize, and is a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards. His debut short fiction collection, Peninsula Sinking won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award, was a runner-up for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction. Huebert’s poetry chapbook with Andy Verboom, Full Mondegreens won the Frog Hollow Chapbook Contest in 2016.
Additional Information:
Author's Website
UNB Profile
Writing Spaces
Author Notes
2020 Journey Prize Finalist
Author's Website
UNB Profile
Writing Spaces
Author Notes
2020 Journey Prize Finalist
Poem: "Blades of Grass"
All the blades of grass
were weeping under
a side-scrolling Nintendo Sky.
O, tonic dreamscape:
peach and rose,
palm-tree green,
synthetic strawberries
and bananas
jumping rainbows
in galactic vasts.
We dropped Wendy’s
fries on the lawn
and all the grass-mouths
opened at once,
crooning cumulus,
howling sodium,
lilting chloride.
Someone passed a Frosty,
My tastebuds wailed
their single word:
saccharine.
Published in Humanimus. Palimpsest Press, 2020.
Republished here with the author's permission.
Critical Analysis: Artificial
Caelin Sullivan (Managing Editor 2020-2021)
David Huebert’s “Blades of Grass” describes a world that is artificial in nature (pun intended). The poem opens with the description of blades of grass weeping under a “side-scrolling Nintendo sky” (3). This refers to a style of game design common especially in Super Mario Bros and other Nintendo games in which the game is designed 2-dimensionally and the gameplay is viewed from a stationary side angle camera. This line, followed by the opening of the next stanza sets up a description of what could be perceived as a virtual world, “O, tonic dreamscape/ peach and rose,/ palm-tree green,/” (4-6). However, the description of “synthetic strawberries/ and bananas” harkens a reading of the poem as an environmentalist criticism.
Synthetic strawberries and bananas could refer to genetically modified organisms, which are considered biologically synthetic. This could also point to a societal turn from natural and clean eating to artificially produced foods. The following lines, “jumping rainbows/ in galactic vasts” (9-10) is demonstrative of the bright artificial colours of modified foods and seemingly endless number of choices of what to eat. However, the poem immediately harkens to a much harsher reality than what is first presented to the reader.
The lines “We dropped Wendy’s/ fries on the lawn” (11-12) brings the reader back into reality and puts them in the present moment by creating a stark contrast from the previous stanza. The narrator then describes the grass-mouths opening (11). This image evokes a yearning and hunger of the Earth, an Earth that is continually being used, having its resources extracted without giving anything back. The use of personification in this poem is especially powerful. The grass opens its mouth, yearning for nutrients. The narrator uses three strong verbs to evoke the life of the grass: crooning, howling, and lilting (15-17). Italicization of words has the effect of feeling like dialogue.
Cumulus is a classification of cloud that is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a dense puffy cloud form having a flat base and rounded outlines often piled up like a mountain.” However, it does not appear that the narrator is using this term in reference to clouds, as it follows directly after the description of the grass’ mouth opening, separated by a comma rather than a full stop. The grass croons “cumulus” (15), crying out for a mountainous form, for more nutrition. However, the addition of “sodium” (16) shows the grass as a reflection of the human self. Access sodium can actually be quite harmful to plant health, (Kronzucker et al. 1), much as it is harmful to human health. But the Earth must accept whatever resources it can access. Finally, the Earth lilts “chloride” (17). Chloride comes from salt and is absorbed by your intestines during digestion (U of Michigan). This emphasises the hunger of the Earth, and its desire for any nutrients it can get.
The idea of artificiality is hammered home in the final stanza, as the narrator drinks a Frosty, a sweet milkshake severed at the Wendy’s restaurant chain, describing it as saccharine; sickeningly sweet. Having these stanzas one after the other shows the similarity of humans to the Earth as both need to consume, but neither get the nutrients they need. Rather, they indulge in what is quick and easy to obtain. For the human it is a milkshake, and for the Earth it is the fallen remains of what humans have consumed. The Earth’s neglect is shown as the blades of grass cry out for an abandoned French fry.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Huebert, David. “Blades of Grass.” Humanimus. Palimpsest Press, 2020. pp. 36.
Kronzucker, Herbert, Coskun, D., Schulze, L.M. et al. “Sodium as Nutrient and Toxicant.” Plant and Soil 329 (2013): 1-23.
University of Michigan. “Chloride (CI) Test.” Michigan Medicine 23 Sept 2020. uofmhealth.org. Accessed 20 April 2021.
David Huebert’s “Blades of Grass” describes a world that is artificial in nature (pun intended). The poem opens with the description of blades of grass weeping under a “side-scrolling Nintendo sky” (3). This refers to a style of game design common especially in Super Mario Bros and other Nintendo games in which the game is designed 2-dimensionally and the gameplay is viewed from a stationary side angle camera. This line, followed by the opening of the next stanza sets up a description of what could be perceived as a virtual world, “O, tonic dreamscape/ peach and rose,/ palm-tree green,/” (4-6). However, the description of “synthetic strawberries/ and bananas” harkens a reading of the poem as an environmentalist criticism.
Synthetic strawberries and bananas could refer to genetically modified organisms, which are considered biologically synthetic. This could also point to a societal turn from natural and clean eating to artificially produced foods. The following lines, “jumping rainbows/ in galactic vasts” (9-10) is demonstrative of the bright artificial colours of modified foods and seemingly endless number of choices of what to eat. However, the poem immediately harkens to a much harsher reality than what is first presented to the reader.
The lines “We dropped Wendy’s/ fries on the lawn” (11-12) brings the reader back into reality and puts them in the present moment by creating a stark contrast from the previous stanza. The narrator then describes the grass-mouths opening (11). This image evokes a yearning and hunger of the Earth, an Earth that is continually being used, having its resources extracted without giving anything back. The use of personification in this poem is especially powerful. The grass opens its mouth, yearning for nutrients. The narrator uses three strong verbs to evoke the life of the grass: crooning, howling, and lilting (15-17). Italicization of words has the effect of feeling like dialogue.
Cumulus is a classification of cloud that is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a dense puffy cloud form having a flat base and rounded outlines often piled up like a mountain.” However, it does not appear that the narrator is using this term in reference to clouds, as it follows directly after the description of the grass’ mouth opening, separated by a comma rather than a full stop. The grass croons “cumulus” (15), crying out for a mountainous form, for more nutrition. However, the addition of “sodium” (16) shows the grass as a reflection of the human self. Access sodium can actually be quite harmful to plant health, (Kronzucker et al. 1), much as it is harmful to human health. But the Earth must accept whatever resources it can access. Finally, the Earth lilts “chloride” (17). Chloride comes from salt and is absorbed by your intestines during digestion (U of Michigan). This emphasises the hunger of the Earth, and its desire for any nutrients it can get.
The idea of artificiality is hammered home in the final stanza, as the narrator drinks a Frosty, a sweet milkshake severed at the Wendy’s restaurant chain, describing it as saccharine; sickeningly sweet. Having these stanzas one after the other shows the similarity of humans to the Earth as both need to consume, but neither get the nutrients they need. Rather, they indulge in what is quick and easy to obtain. For the human it is a milkshake, and for the Earth it is the fallen remains of what humans have consumed. The Earth’s neglect is shown as the blades of grass cry out for an abandoned French fry.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Huebert, David. “Blades of Grass.” Humanimus. Palimpsest Press, 2020. pp. 36.
Kronzucker, Herbert, Coskun, D., Schulze, L.M. et al. “Sodium as Nutrient and Toxicant.” Plant and Soil 329 (2013): 1-23.
University of Michigan. “Chloride (CI) Test.” Michigan Medicine 23 Sept 2020. uofmhealth.org. Accessed 20 April 2021.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Poetry:
Huebert, David & Verboom, Andy. Full Mondegreens. Frog Hollow Press, 2017.
Huebert, David. “Answering Rike’s Sonnets to Orpheus.” Literary Review of Canada 2015. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Bears Once.” Nova Scotia Advocate 2020.
---. “Blades of Grass.” carteblanche 23 (Winter 2015). carte-blanche.org.
---. “The Call.” Contemporary Verse 2: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing: Poetry Only 37.4 (Spring 2015).
---. “Colloquium: J.T. Henry and Lady Simcoe on Early Ontario Petrocolonialism.” The Walrus, 20 Dec 2016. thewalrus.ca.
---. “Equine Tide.” Literary Review of Canada 2013. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Grass of the Commons.” Writing the Common Anthology, Gaspereau Press, 2017.
---. “Grate, Dundas St.” London Public Library: Poetry London Contest, 13 Apr 2016. londonpubliclibrary.ca.
---. Humanimus. Palimpsest Press, 2020.
---. “The Porn We Watched.” Poetry is Dead: Youth Culture 11 (2015).
---. “Ruins Walk, Louisbourg.” Literary Review of Canada, 2015. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Species of Dust.” Contemporary Verse 2: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing, 20 Dec 2020. contemporaryverse2.ca.
---. We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class. Guernica, 2015.
Fiction:
---. “Bellyflop.” The Puritan 28 (Winter 2015). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Chemical Valley.” The Fiddlehead 280 (Summer 2020) pp. 56-77.
---. “Enigma.” CBC Literary Prizes (11 May 2017). cbc.ca.
---. “Jellyfish.” The Antigonish Review 183 (2015).
---. “Joustmaestro9.” Matrix Magazine: Trans Lit. 2016.
---. “Max Hetero.” Black Heart Magazine, 16 Sept 2011. blackheartmagazine.com.
---. “Maxi.” Canadian Notes and Queries 100 (Fall 2017). notesandqueries.ca.
---. “Nietzsche’s Prophet Discovers His Powers.” The Impressment Gang 1 (2014) 26-9. issuu.com.
---. Peninsula Sinking: Stories. Biblioasis, 2017.
---. “Silicone Giddy.” The Puritan 32: (Winter 2016). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Sitzpinkler.” The Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017) 56-77.
---. “Suture.” The Puritan 36 (Winter 2017). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Swamp Things.” The New Quarterly 155.
---. “Underfolk.” Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times, edited by Catriona Sandilands, Caitlin Press, 2019.
---. “Urinemate.” Broken Pencil 66 (2015).
---. “Without Seeing.” The Dalhousie Review 94.1 (Spring 2014) 35-47. ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “53 Things Vowed Not to Reveal.” The Impressment Gang 2.1 (2015)18-22. issuu.com.
---. “@shaleshate.” Fractured: Tales of the Canadian Post-Apocalypse, edited by Silvia Moreno Garcia, Exile Editions, 2014.
Creative Non-Fiction:
---. “Oblivion’s Wake: An Essay on Parenting During a Pandemic.” CBC Books (25 May 2020). cbc.ca.
Academic:
---. “Archival Futurism in Paul Auster’s The Book of Illusions.” Canadian Review of American Studies 46.2 (2016): 245-64. Literature Online.
---. “Biopolitical Dystopias, Bureaucratic Carnivores, Synthetic Primitives: ‘Pastoralia’ as Human Zoo.” George Saunders: Critical Essays, edited by Phillip Coleman and Steve Ellerhoff. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. pp. 105-120.
---. “Eating and Mourning the Corpse of the World: Ecological Cannibalism and Elegiac Protomourning in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.” Cormac McCarthy Journal 15.1 (2017): 66-87. Literature Online.
---. “Editorial.” The Dalhousie Review 100.3 (Autumn 2020). ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “The Equine Erotopoetics of Linda Hogan and Joy Harjo.” ISLE 25.1 (2018): 169-85. Literature Online.
---. “Faulty Families and Towering Slums: Two Stylists Get Crafty.” Canadian Literature, 28 Aug 2020. canlit.ca.
---. “Rev. The History of Canada is a History of Oil.” Maisonneuve (4 Dec 2017). maisonneuve.org.
---. “Rev. Invisible Dogs by Barry Dempster.” The Goose 13.2 (2015): 12. scholars.wlu.ca.
---. “Othello’s Testicles, Sybil’s Womb: The Interracial Child in Harlem Duet and its Progenitor.” English Studies in Canada 41.4 (2015) 23-50. Literature Online.
---. “Scenting Wild: Olfactory Panic and Jack London’s Ocular Dogs.” Seeing Animals After Derrida, edited by Sarah Bezan and James Tink. Lexington Books, 2018. pp. 127-143. MLA International Bibliography.
---. “Some Poems are Medicine: An Interview with Shalan Joudry.” The Dalhousie Review 100.3 (Autumn 2020) pp.ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “A Review of Sam Lipsyte’s The Fun Parts.” The Rusty Toque, 15 Nov 2013. therustytoque.com.
---. “Three Short Takes, The Virtues of Poetry, Super Sad True Love Story and Under the Keel.” Lemon Hound, 5 July 2013. lemonhound.com.
---. “A Tiger in the ‘Rooster Coop’: Techno-Capitalism, Narrative Ambiguity, and Gandhian Traditionalism in The White Tiger.” South Asian Review, 36.2 (2015): 25-50. MLA International Bibliography.
Secondary Sources:
Abram, Zachary. “In the Belly of the Whale.” Canadian Literature 238 (2019): 127-8. canlit.ca.
Benjamin, Chris. “Atlantic Writers Make Good in CBC’s Short Story Contest.” Atlantic Books Today 20 Apr 2016. atlanticbookstoday.ca.
Calabrese, Donald. “Peninsula Sinking Shows Huebert is One of Canada’s Most Promising Talents.” Atlantic Books Today, 12 Jan 2018. atlanticbookstoday.ca.
Codrington, Dionne. “How David Huebert Turned Winning a CBC Literary Prize into a Stunning Short Story Collection.” CBC Books, 30 Nov 2017. cbc.ca.
CBC Radio. “David Huebert Considers the Beauty Behind Climate Change in his Debut Short Story Collection.” CBC Radio: The Next Chapter, 12 Feb 2018. cbc.ca.
“David Huebert on Inspiring a Dress Code, Being Haunted by Cows, and his Bachelorette Canada Connection.” Open Book, 13 Nov 2017. open-book.ca.
Gilmer, Jeremy Thomas. “Book Review: David Huebert’s ‘Peninsula Sinking’ Is Bloody and Beautiful.” The East, 2 Apr 2018. theeastmag.com.
Gorny, Danny. “Rev: We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class, by David Huebert.” The Toronto Guardian, 28 Oct 2015. torontoguardian.com.
MacKinnon, Naomi. “Rev: Peninsula Sinking by David Huebert.” The Miramichi Reader, 14 Dec 2017. miramichireader.ca.
Morrison, Geoffrey. “A Review of David Huebert’s We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class and Aaron Krueter’s Arguments for Lawn Chairs.”
The Rusty Toque 11 (2016). therustytoque.com.
Newton, Wayne. “Author Find Inspiration in Southwestern Ontario.” The Londoner, 30 Nov 2017. thelondoner.ca.
Poetry:
Huebert, David & Verboom, Andy. Full Mondegreens. Frog Hollow Press, 2017.
Huebert, David. “Answering Rike’s Sonnets to Orpheus.” Literary Review of Canada 2015. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Bears Once.” Nova Scotia Advocate 2020.
---. “Blades of Grass.” carteblanche 23 (Winter 2015). carte-blanche.org.
---. “The Call.” Contemporary Verse 2: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing: Poetry Only 37.4 (Spring 2015).
---. “Colloquium: J.T. Henry and Lady Simcoe on Early Ontario Petrocolonialism.” The Walrus, 20 Dec 2016. thewalrus.ca.
---. “Equine Tide.” Literary Review of Canada 2013. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Grass of the Commons.” Writing the Common Anthology, Gaspereau Press, 2017.
---. “Grate, Dundas St.” London Public Library: Poetry London Contest, 13 Apr 2016. londonpubliclibrary.ca.
---. Humanimus. Palimpsest Press, 2020.
---. “The Porn We Watched.” Poetry is Dead: Youth Culture 11 (2015).
---. “Ruins Walk, Louisbourg.” Literary Review of Canada, 2015. reviewcanada.ca.
---. “Species of Dust.” Contemporary Verse 2: The Canadian Journal of Poetry and Critical Writing, 20 Dec 2020. contemporaryverse2.ca.
---. We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class. Guernica, 2015.
Fiction:
---. “Bellyflop.” The Puritan 28 (Winter 2015). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Chemical Valley.” The Fiddlehead 280 (Summer 2020) pp. 56-77.
---. “Enigma.” CBC Literary Prizes (11 May 2017). cbc.ca.
---. “Jellyfish.” The Antigonish Review 183 (2015).
---. “Joustmaestro9.” Matrix Magazine: Trans Lit. 2016.
---. “Max Hetero.” Black Heart Magazine, 16 Sept 2011. blackheartmagazine.com.
---. “Maxi.” Canadian Notes and Queries 100 (Fall 2017). notesandqueries.ca.
---. “Nietzsche’s Prophet Discovers His Powers.” The Impressment Gang 1 (2014) 26-9. issuu.com.
---. Peninsula Sinking: Stories. Biblioasis, 2017.
---. “Silicone Giddy.” The Puritan 32: (Winter 2016). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Sitzpinkler.” The Fiddlehead 273 (Autumn 2017) 56-77.
---. “Suture.” The Puritan 36 (Winter 2017). puritan-magazine.com.
---. “Swamp Things.” The New Quarterly 155.
---. “Underfolk.” Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times, edited by Catriona Sandilands, Caitlin Press, 2019.
---. “Urinemate.” Broken Pencil 66 (2015).
---. “Without Seeing.” The Dalhousie Review 94.1 (Spring 2014) 35-47. ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “53 Things Vowed Not to Reveal.” The Impressment Gang 2.1 (2015)18-22. issuu.com.
---. “@shaleshate.” Fractured: Tales of the Canadian Post-Apocalypse, edited by Silvia Moreno Garcia, Exile Editions, 2014.
Creative Non-Fiction:
---. “Oblivion’s Wake: An Essay on Parenting During a Pandemic.” CBC Books (25 May 2020). cbc.ca.
Academic:
---. “Archival Futurism in Paul Auster’s The Book of Illusions.” Canadian Review of American Studies 46.2 (2016): 245-64. Literature Online.
---. “Biopolitical Dystopias, Bureaucratic Carnivores, Synthetic Primitives: ‘Pastoralia’ as Human Zoo.” George Saunders: Critical Essays, edited by Phillip Coleman and Steve Ellerhoff. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. pp. 105-120.
---. “Eating and Mourning the Corpse of the World: Ecological Cannibalism and Elegiac Protomourning in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.” Cormac McCarthy Journal 15.1 (2017): 66-87. Literature Online.
---. “Editorial.” The Dalhousie Review 100.3 (Autumn 2020). ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “The Equine Erotopoetics of Linda Hogan and Joy Harjo.” ISLE 25.1 (2018): 169-85. Literature Online.
---. “Faulty Families and Towering Slums: Two Stylists Get Crafty.” Canadian Literature, 28 Aug 2020. canlit.ca.
---. “Rev. The History of Canada is a History of Oil.” Maisonneuve (4 Dec 2017). maisonneuve.org.
---. “Rev. Invisible Dogs by Barry Dempster.” The Goose 13.2 (2015): 12. scholars.wlu.ca.
---. “Othello’s Testicles, Sybil’s Womb: The Interracial Child in Harlem Duet and its Progenitor.” English Studies in Canada 41.4 (2015) 23-50. Literature Online.
---. “Scenting Wild: Olfactory Panic and Jack London’s Ocular Dogs.” Seeing Animals After Derrida, edited by Sarah Bezan and James Tink. Lexington Books, 2018. pp. 127-143. MLA International Bibliography.
---. “Some Poems are Medicine: An Interview with Shalan Joudry.” The Dalhousie Review 100.3 (Autumn 2020) pp.ojs.library.dal.ca.
---. “A Review of Sam Lipsyte’s The Fun Parts.” The Rusty Toque, 15 Nov 2013. therustytoque.com.
---. “Three Short Takes, The Virtues of Poetry, Super Sad True Love Story and Under the Keel.” Lemon Hound, 5 July 2013. lemonhound.com.
---. “A Tiger in the ‘Rooster Coop’: Techno-Capitalism, Narrative Ambiguity, and Gandhian Traditionalism in The White Tiger.” South Asian Review, 36.2 (2015): 25-50. MLA International Bibliography.
Secondary Sources:
Abram, Zachary. “In the Belly of the Whale.” Canadian Literature 238 (2019): 127-8. canlit.ca.
Benjamin, Chris. “Atlantic Writers Make Good in CBC’s Short Story Contest.” Atlantic Books Today 20 Apr 2016. atlanticbookstoday.ca.
Calabrese, Donald. “Peninsula Sinking Shows Huebert is One of Canada’s Most Promising Talents.” Atlantic Books Today, 12 Jan 2018. atlanticbookstoday.ca.
Codrington, Dionne. “How David Huebert Turned Winning a CBC Literary Prize into a Stunning Short Story Collection.” CBC Books, 30 Nov 2017. cbc.ca.
CBC Radio. “David Huebert Considers the Beauty Behind Climate Change in his Debut Short Story Collection.” CBC Radio: The Next Chapter, 12 Feb 2018. cbc.ca.
“David Huebert on Inspiring a Dress Code, Being Haunted by Cows, and his Bachelorette Canada Connection.” Open Book, 13 Nov 2017. open-book.ca.
Gilmer, Jeremy Thomas. “Book Review: David Huebert’s ‘Peninsula Sinking’ Is Bloody and Beautiful.” The East, 2 Apr 2018. theeastmag.com.
Gorny, Danny. “Rev: We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class, by David Huebert.” The Toronto Guardian, 28 Oct 2015. torontoguardian.com.
MacKinnon, Naomi. “Rev: Peninsula Sinking by David Huebert.” The Miramichi Reader, 14 Dec 2017. miramichireader.ca.
Morrison, Geoffrey. “A Review of David Huebert’s We Are No Longer the Smart Kids in Class and Aaron Krueter’s Arguments for Lawn Chairs.”
The Rusty Toque 11 (2016). therustytoque.com.
Newton, Wayne. “Author Find Inspiration in Southwestern Ontario.” The Londoner, 30 Nov 2017. thelondoner.ca.
