“Oh my god, this is a perfect book.” These were the words I said to my friend as we were sitting in a common area, working and reading silently together in rare, quiet company. I’d just finished reading Sue Goyette’s Future Howl. It’s been about a month since then, and I have not changed my mind. Future Howl is everything we’re holding in: our personal trauma, nostalgia and recovery, bearing witness to global atrocity, and every wish for the good and decent.

—Jamie Kitts, Miramichi Reader

Future Howl is a stunning meditation on trauma—both familial, and societal. Goyette’s collection transitions gracefully from one dichotomy to the next. Private agonies bleed into public denials while families can be as bloodthirsty as wolves. Natural scenes become escapist fantasy as the animal world viewed through a computer monitor is infinitely more comforting than the realities of genocide and climate change. After all, it is far easier to project human social dynamics onto the behaviours of animals than it is to interrogate the animosity embedded in human societies. Goyette boldly places humanity at the crossroads between the natural and unnatural worlds, then asks which is real. Where are the boundaries between authenticity and performance? Where do familial abuse and societal denial intersect? Where do they diverge? Goyette does not provide answers. Instead, the reader will find vivid imagery, wild feeling, and a maternal rage that is ancient and unyielding.

—2026 J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award Jury