In which we give you a taste of what to look forward to poetically in the months ahead.
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In The Place of Scraps, Jordan Abel explores the complicated relationship between First Nations cultures and ethnography via the work of an early-twentieth century ethnographer in the Pacific Northwest. Air Proof Green is the second collection by environmental journalist Maleea Acker, with poems that approach the threshold between the human and natural worlds. A Night for the Lady is a new collection by Canadian-Metis poet Joanne Arnott, who is previously a winner of the Gerald Lampert Award.
Kimmy Beach blends the myth of James Bond with the narrative of The Last Temptation of Christ in The Last Temptation of Bond. Black Liquor is the latest by Vancouver writer Dennis E. Bolen. And Edward Carson, twice winner of the EJ Pratt Poetry Award, releases his second collection, Birds Flock Fish School.
Margaret Christakos's ninth collection is Multitudes, in which the ideas of Walt Whitman encounter social media. The award-winning Karen Connelly's latest poetry collection is Come cold river, a portrayal of her own troubled family which also serves as an indictment of Canada's long history of racism and violence. And acclaimed writer Lynn Davies' first book in eight years is How the Gods Pour Tea.
Award-winning poet Barry Dempster's new collection is Invisible Dogs, about the breakdown of a love affair and the vicissitudes of middle age. In her debut, Happiness Threads: The Unborn Poems, Melanie Dennis Unrau explores the balance between making art and motherhood. Marc di Saverio's Sanatorium Songs are written from the perspective of mentally ill patients.
Life is a boxcar, so say the poems in Slack Action, a new book by Jeffrey Donaldson. Jon Paul Fiorentino Needs Improvement, which is the title of his latest collection of poems, and they include a misread grade-six report card. And from class to class, we arrive at Class Acts by Katerina Fretwell, which confronts the historical class/caste system in the West.
Catherine Graham's fifth collection is Her Red Hair Rises With the Wings of Insects, whose poems pay homage to poets PK Page and Dorothy Molloy. The Lost Letters by Catherine Greenwood centres around a sequence of poems based on the story of Heloise and Abelard. And Jennica Harper's third collection is Wood, which includes her Sally Draper Poems.
Poet/Novelist Lydia Kwa's latest is sinuous. JonArno Lawson's approach in Enjoy It While It Hurts is compared to Edward Gorey, Shel Silverstein and Hilaire Belloc. And On Butterfly Wings by Sonia Lamontagne, which won the 2012 Trillium Award for Frensh Poetry, appears in English translation by Howard Scott.
Correspondences is a unique collaboration between Anne Michaels and Bernice Eisenstein. The award for Best Title goes to Alexandra Oliver for Meeting the Tormenters in Safeway. And David O'Meara, whose prizes include twice winning the Archibald Lampman award, releases a new collection, A Pretty Sight.
Robert Priest's Previously Feared Darkness picks up where he left off with Reading the Bible Backwards. Another most-intriguing title is Robin Richardson's Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis. And award-winning poet Sandra Ridley's new book is The Counting House, "akin to a bookkeeper's accounting of... the pageantry and pedantry of courtly affection gone awry."
Our Days in Vaudeville is a collaboration between Stuart Ross, Leigh Nash and Alice Burdick. Light is the long-awaited third collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa. Wild Rice Dreams by Vera Wabegijig is a anthology of poems from Anishinaabe perspectives. And I write these words/ J'écris ces mots by Lélia Young, translated by Christine Tipper, is a collection of poems from the perspective of a Tunisian-Canadian woman in Toronto.