The first collection of poems by Justin Lukyn, as a resident of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, is Henry Pepper (New Star, 2008), in which Lukyn he uses a fictional counterpart named Henry Pepper to take the pulse of Canada's poorest neighborhood. Pepper is described by his publisher as a "slightly cracked anthropologist of the everyday". Each poem is titled with the serial number of a local dumpster. Lukyn says the intended effect of his poems is to "maybe just to hurt the world a little and not be caught."

BOOKS:

Henry Pepper (New Star, 2008) $19 978-1-55420-034-4

[BCBW 2008] "Poetry" "Downtown Eastside"