Journey to the southernmost tip of the territories held by Canada. North of Middle Island opens with a collection of individual poems that
capture the spirit of the relatively isolated, sparsely populated community of
Pelee Island. The pieces explore contemporary Indigenous experience in the
natural and built environments of the island and surrounding waters.
The book concludes with an epic, “rarely true” narrative of modern-day warriors, told in traditional Anglo-Saxon style—a new Lenape myth of how Deerwoman (Ahtuhxkwe) comes to Pelee Island. The events of this epic tale are loosely based on the infamous professional wrestler and actor Rowdy Roddy Piper’s time on the island and Wrestlemania XII, Piper’s notorious “Backlot Brawl” with fellow wrestler Goldust (Nkuli Punkw).
Follow acclaimed Moravian of the Thames First Nation poet D.A. Lockhart on this lyrical, epic journey into the unique culture and landscapes that lie just North of Middle Island.

D.A. Lockhart is the author of multiple collections of poetry and short fiction. His work has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award, Indiana Author’s Awards, First Nations Communities READ Award, and has been a finalist for the ReLit Award. His work has appeared widely throughout Turtle Island including, The Malahat Review, Grain, CV2, TriQuarterly, The Fiddlehead, ARC Poetry Magazine, Best Canadian Poetry, Best New Poetry from the Midwest, and Belt. Along the way his work has garnered numerous Pushcart Prize nominations, National Magazine Award nominations, and Best of the Net nominations. He is a graduate of the Indiana University – Bloomington MFA in Creative Writing program where he held a Neal-Marshall Graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing. He is pùkuwànkoamimëns of the Moravian of the Thames First Nation. Lockhart currently resides at Waawiiyaatanong and Pelee Island where he is the publisher at Urban Farmhouse Press.

Daniel (.D.A.). Lockhart's profile page

"Part border report, part vision, Lockhart’s new poems transport the reader via the momentum of a restless, agile imagination. Whether exploring lyric impressions of our natural world, or imagining the mythic dimensions of a local conflict, North of Middle Island is abundant, dramatic, passionate and ambitious in its gifts of observation and story-telling."
David O'Meara, author of Masses on Radar

“The poems of North of Middle Island are borne of a slow, sun-drenched observation, a long looking that mingles good
with evil, folktale with tall tale, water’s healing with tourism’s damage, all measured out in slow drives down gravel roads, in storm winds, in wrestling and rock music. D.A. Lockhart shows us with such ease all that eludes colonial control, all the life that thrives on Pelee Island.”
Laurie D. Graham, author of Fast Commute