This new collection from one of our premier poets showcases works of uncommon spirituality, explorations into philosophy and science, as well as evocations of love, grief, and unexpected comfort. This selection includes both new and out-of-print poems from: Until the Light Bends, Uncommon Prayer, Learning to Ride, The Hummingbird Murders, Dangerous Graces, and Dark Galaxies.

A Paper Affairencompasses all the stages of McMaster’s lyrical and engaging “page poetry” from her first solo collection published in 1986 up to her new poems from 2009 and casts an interesting light on her performance poetry. She lives in Ottawa and summers in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

Susan McMaster is the author of sixteen poetry books and recordings; an editor of anthologies, books, and magazines; and the creator and performer of wordmusic with First Draft and Geode Music & Poetry (a.k.a. SugarBeat).Her recent collection Until the Light Bends was shortlisted for both the Ottawa Book Award and the Archibald Lampman Poetry Prize. She has performed across Canada, and her work has been broadcast on such national shows as WordBeat, Go!, Richardson’s Roundup, As It Happens, and Morningside. Other projects include Dangerous Graces: Women’s Poetry on Stage; Siolence: Women, Violence and Silence; and ”Convergence,“ a millennial project to bring poetry and art from across Canada to Parliament Hill, collected in Waging Peace: Poetry and Political Action. Everyone needs poetry. At the highest and lowest and hardest and most wonderful times, we want it to mark and to say what can’t be otherwise said. We need poetry for the important things – birth, love, hope, loss, fear, grief, hope. Poetry is the language of the deep self; by its ameliorating song. In poems, we can encompass who we are, overcome shame, fear, separateness. In the poem, it’s all right to be human and flawed, and it’s possible for a moment to be an angel.

Susan McMaster's profile page

“Strips away the wrapping from human relationships... displays intelligence and integrity… gets at essences while maintaining an optimistic energy…”

– Toronto Star

“A lovely combination of high seriousness and cheap jokes, the way the profound and the banal confuse and illuminate our lives…”

– bpNichol