Dummy Spit is the first major poetry collection by Mark Laba, a long-time veteran of the Canadian small press scene. Equal parts hardcore surrealism and Yiddish vaudeville, Mark Laba's poetry is elliptical, crass, hilarious, lightning-fast, and oddly lyrical. Whether Laba is plumbing the depths of ventriloquism or taking to the high seas on a Henny Youngmanesque voyage of discovery, he shocks, enthralls, and amuses. To read these poems is to juggle hot potatoes, blindfolded and without oven mitts. Mark Laba is an important voice in Canadian poetry, and this collection will finally bring his work to a larger audience.
"Dummy Spit is corrosive and delightful. The spit gleams through the many words, glints off of the twists and turns of logical thought. If you notice the more surreal aspects of Canadian life, and dismay and revel in each day, you?ll like Mark Laba's words."? Alice Burdick
"Mark Laba is a mystic, a poet who telepathically sails his boat of melancholia into some parallel universe. If his travels seem surreal, I assure you that feet are firmly anchored to the terrestrial plane. ‘Blemishes of the Prairie Hen’ has more to do with the celebration of Eros than with some free-range fowl. Laba only uses the bird to dream on about some shapely secretaries with their bosoms in the soup. This poet is stark raving mad."? Joe Rosenblatt

Mark Laba grew up in Toronto, but has lived in Vancouver for nearly a decade. He is the author of a collaborative pork-noir novel with Stuart Ross called The Pig Sleeps (Contra Mundo Books, 1993), as well as the stunning sequence The Mack Bolan Poems (Gesture Press), which won the first bpNichol Chapbook Award in 1986. The food reviewer for The Vancouver Province, his column “Mark Laba’s Adventures in Dining” appears weekly. Laba has appeared regularly on TV and radio, as well as in urban travel guides, expounding on the delights of greasy-spoon restaurants and peeler-bar buffets. The Mercury Press is proud to present Laba’s book of poetry Dummy Spit.

Mark Laba's profile page