“I believe a book can be a labyrinth whose centre is the journey to itself,” writes Peter Sanger. “A concerto grosso, not a
singular declamation” And indeed in reading Sanger, individual books, like individual poems, may profitably be read as
layers in the strata of his oeuvre, each influenced by what was written before and influencing in turn what was to be
written next. Taken together, his books describe the long arc of his particular sensitivity to language and his ever-evolving sense of nature, culture and place. “All the poems in Fireship,” writes Sanger, “concern where we were,
where we are, where we will be.”

As well as his many prose projects, Gaspereau Press has been publishing Sanger’s poetry since 2002, issuing two full-length
collections–Aiken Drum and John Stokes’ Horse. While these volumes remain in print, Sanger’s first two
collections, published elsewhere, have essentially disappeared from view–The America Reel (1983) and Earth
Moth (1991). With the blessing of their original publishers, Gaspereau Press is marking Peter Sanger’s seventieth
birthday in 2013 by reissuing his first two poetry books in a single volume, collecting with them 24 previously unpublished
poems which predate them. The volume also includes a new essay entitled “Log-slate.”

Raised in Ontario, Peter Sanger (1943) was born in Worcestershire, England, and was for twenty-six years a professor at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. An editor of The Antigonish Review, Sanger also edited John Thompson: Collected Poems and Translations (1995). He founded the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. His books on poetry include SeaRun: Notes on John Thompson's "Stilt Jack" (1986) and "Her kindled shadow . . .": An Introduction to the Work of Richard Outram (2001, 2002). A collection of essays, Spar: Words in Place, was published by Gaspereau Press in 2002.

Peter Sanger's profile page